Well, not necessarily. Tolkien managed to never let him appear with Sauron. But in this story, although the villains of the piece take care to live in shadow and deflect attention, they aren't going to pull it off. I have even carefully slotted in the points at which our hero gets to get clues, once he retroactively interprets them.
But as he is now reflecting on how, young though he is, he seems to be the only person who cares enough to do the research. Which means he has to get the clues on how to reinterpret the past, and also acquire new clues, all of which have to point to somewhere more definite than ever before. . . .