WARNING: This article contains spoilers for “Mouthwashing.“
Many iconic video game villains have their own shtick that makes them great. Bowser kidnaps Princess Peach in the “Super Mario” series; Handsome Jack stays smug during his reign in “Borderlands 2”; and “Silent Hill 2’s” Pyramid Head is a slow yet dangerous symbol of self-punishment.
Well, Wrong Organ’s 2024 sleeper hit, “Mouthwashing,” has given these baddies a run for their money by introducing a villain so horrible, you can’t even love to hate them. That’s what makes him a perfect villain.
Meet Jimmy: co-captain of the Tulpar spaceship, and one of the vilest characters to exist in gaming.
He may be human, but he isn’t humane.
While playing “Mouthwashing,” you acknowledge Jimmy as the protagonist since you control him for most of the game. We initially have the mindset that just because someone’s the protagonist, they’re the “good guy.” That couldn’t be anymore false– you just haven’t seen them do anything wrong yet.
Jimmy caused every conflict in the story. You could say the same for every other gaming villain, but, as a psychological horror game, “Mouthwashing” viscerally shows us how sometimes the scariest monsters are people we know.
Everything began when Jimmy sexually assaulted one of the five main characters: Anya. Despite this never being explicitly stated or shown, context clues reveal themselves until you finally put the picture together. The most consistent hint is how uneasy Anya is around Jimmy. She’s nervous when talking to him and startled when he appears. Her mental stability worsens when she learns she is pregnant.
Jimmy never owns up to this misdeed, even after his own mind mocks him for it during his many psychotic episodes. He even escapes punishment when confronted by Captain Curly by threatening him with his reputation, claiming every mistake made by the crew is under his purview, insinuating that it would be his fault, too.
Then, Jimmy leaves everyone stranded in space, which is equivalent to slowly killing everyone out of starvation and dehydration. Out of guilt and after being laid off, Jimmy attempts but fails to commit suicide by crashing the Tulpar, making the ship unable to fly. Since it also left Curly incapacitated and unable to talk, Jimmy takes advantage of his condition and frames Curly for the crash, knowing full well that he can’t defend himself.
While Curly isn’t much better than Jimmy, everyone spends the remainder of the game believing their situation was Curly’s fault. It’s heinous: the true villain of the game made a villain out of someone else, and you, the player, spent half of the game fooled due to how the story was unreliably presented.
Jimmy is also highly narcissistic. In pre-accident chapters, he envied Curly because of the respect he earned as a captain, becoming obsessed with this idea. This explains why he immediately claims the captain role after the accident, and, during his apology to Curly in a psychotic episode, he claims, “No, we can both be heroes!” Jimmy, that’s the last thing you need to worry about right now.
Being a captain means taking responsibility, and Jimmy’s lack of comprehension gets the rest of the crew killed.
Because of Jimmy’s actions, Anya locks herself in the medbay and commits suicide. Knowing the only other way inside the medbay was a hazardous collapsed vent, Jimmy sends Daisuke inside instead. Daisuke gets critically injured then euthanized since Jimmy wasted the remaining disinfectant to knock out Swansea and gain access to the vent’s room. Finally, Swansea attempts to kill Jimmy and avenge Anya and Daisuke. Unfortunately, Jimmy gets the upper hand, allowing him to subdue and kill Swansea, which felt more like disposing of evidence.
You finish “Mouthwashing” by putting Curly in the only functioning cryo-pod. He tells Curly, “I fixed it,” right before he activates the cryo-pod and shoots himself.
The moment it happens, you won’t feel bad. Jimmy is a villain you can’t even love to hate. You were playing someone more akin to a monster than a person, and thus, you’re most likely unsatisfied with how he died. He died a coward, taking the easy way out when he deserved worse.
Upon reflection, every choice Jimmy made as “captain” got progressively worse. Part of what makes “Mouthwashing” stand out is how the game forced you to do horrible things to progress, and, of course, you were controlling Jimmy every time. There isn’t a more fitting way to end the game than with one of the worst possible outcomes: giving the character in the worst condition a bigger chance of being rescued.
Jimmy is undoubtedly the most despicable villain in gaming. His crimes may have been horrendous, but the only thing worse than committing terrible acts is never properly taking responsibility for them.
With his level of dishonesty, he caused havoc among those who didn’t deserve it, even lying to himself, which in turn meant he was lying to you. Jimmy is a character that should make you redefine what you think a protagonist is, because he sure isn’t a hero. Every little piece of Jimmy was written so well that I hate it, and I say that as a compliment.