Mouthwashing is a bizarre indie horror game from the minds of Wrong Organ. It was published by CRITICAL REFLEX – who also published the similarly atmospheric Buckshot Roulette – and released for $12.99. Their other title on Steam, How Fish Is Made, was self-published and is currently free on Steam. Both games have received overwhelmingly positive reviews, but Mouthwashing has taken the psychological horror genre by storm. Top horror streamers on YouTube, including MainlyBadassHero, John Twolfe, and special edd have posted walkthroughs of the roughly 2-hour game – amassing over 1,000,000 views between them.

But what is this story about? The relatively vague description from Wrong Orga reads: “The five crew members of the Tulpar are stranded in the empty reaches of space, shrouded in perpetual sunset. God is not watching.” And the trailer includes a series of disjointed clips of disturbing imagery, an old guy dancing, and a lot of mouthwash. In this article, we’ll go over the somewhat confusing and metaphorical story of Mouthwashing. So obviously, spoilers ahead!

All-Aboard the Pony Express

When the game starts, we find ourselves on the Pony Express Long-Haul Space Freighter Tuplar. The information on our monitor lets us know that we’re a crew of 5, the planned shipment duration is 382 days, the elapsed transit time is 147 days, and the eerie message “I hope this hurts.” We’re then thrust into the captain’s seat – an orbital body has been detected, and if no actions are taken, it’s going to crash into the ship. Unfortunately, the game only lets us make the wrong choices, causing our inevitable fiery collision.

The story is told in a non-linear fashion, so there’s a lot of jumping around. After the crash, we catch up with the crew two months in the future. We meet Swansea – the ship’s mechanic, Daisuke – his apprentice, Anya – a nurse, and Jimmy – the new captain. We discover that we’re playing as Jimmy and the former captain, Curly, is thought to be responsible for purposefully crashing into the orbital body.

But Curly can’t exactly defend himself. He has been severely maimed – missing an eye, his limbs, and most of his skin.

Mouthwash – as Far as the Eye Can See

The beginning sections of the story revolve around whether or not the crew should open the Cargo hold to see what they’ve been hauling. If it could be useful, maybe it would help them survive a little longer. The way things stand as-is, the ship only has enough power for 6 months, and food will run out even sooner. 

Once they decide to open the hold, however, they are shocked to find it is all mouthwash. What appears to be millions of bottles. Unfortunately, the sugar contents make the discovery even more useless as a possible antiseptic. It is from here that the crew falls into further disarray – dealing with the emotional turmoil of self-worth. Did they really sign up for a year-long journey just for some mouthwash? And is it worth dying for?

The Unravelling of The Pony Express

Throughout the story, we’re given the duty of medicating Curly. He makes nasty gurgling noises. Anya, the ship’s medic, is too nauseous to do it herself. Jimmy, being Curly’s former best friend, does so reluctantly. As his mental health deteriorates, Jimmy begins to hallucinate disturbing imagery of disemboweling Curly, and sees a monstrous version of the ship’s pony mascot. But why does he feel so much anguish, and why is Curly such a big part of these episodes?

Anya locks herself in the Medical room with Curly, ominously stating that she must do this. We are made to believe that she is going to kill Curly. Jimmy figures out a way to reach her from the Utility room. But Swansea, who had viciously and suspiciously guarded it this entire time, refuses to allow access to reach Anya. So Jimmy devises a plan to get Swansea plastered and send Daisuke through the vents to reach her. While this does work, Daisuke gets mortally wounded in the vents. And it is all for naught, because Anya had already taken her own life. Swansea, after coming to, ultimately puts Daisuke out of his misery with his cherished axe. And then there were two.

Who Was Responsible for the Crash?

We are sent into the past – 0 days before the crash. We learn that Jimmy was actually responsible for the crash. He had sexually assaulted Anya, resulting in her pregnancy. When he learned this, along with the fact that their team was soon to be terminated, he decided he’d rather crash and burn – and take everyone else with him. Curly became disfigured not because he was at fault, but because he ran to the cockpit to reverse the damage Jimmy had done. 

That being said, Curly knew of the alleged sexual assault and asked Anya to let him handle it. And when Jimmy confided in Curly about his plan, he only replied with “We can fix this.” As the captain, this was certainly his job, but his personal feelings for his best friend caused him to hesitate, and inevitably cause everyone’s doom.

From this perspective, we can now see why Anya was nauseous so often and hesitant to be around Jimmy alone. Why Anya and Swansea were having a secret emotional meeting that got awkward when Jimmy stepped in. Swansea knew Jimmy was at fault and what he did to Anya, so he was trying to protect everyone else from him. The reason he kept the remaining pod a secret wasn’t for his own gains, but because he wanted Daisuke to have a chance to keep living.

The Ending of Mouthwashing

Then things get a little weird, with a long sequence of different hallucinations dragging Jimmy through the vents, a graveyard, and a birthday party – where Curly is the cake. We find the entire crew, dead, seated at the table with party hats. We haven’t seen Swansea get killed just yet, but it is implied that he is shot in the head after he attempts to kill him with the same axe. Sure enough, we are taken back in time to witness Jimmy unlocking the ship’s gun and killing Swansea, but not before his jarring monologue about addiction and meaning.

Now, with everyone dead except for Jimmy and Curly, Jimmy carries Curly to the Utility room. It’s a long, quiet journey – with Curly staring up at Jimmy with that one bulging eye. Jimmy decides to place Curly in the pod. Then, our perspective shifts to Curly. Jimmy moves out of view, telling Curly that he will survive. And as things start getting chilly in the pod, we hear a gunshot and see a flash. Jimmy has surely taken his own life. Helpless, over the next few minutes, we watch as ice creeps along the walls and slows our head movement. Until inevitably, our vision is completely covered by the cold. 

The ending is sad with a hint of positivity. The pods only have a shelf life of 28 years. So hopefully someone comes around and finds Curly in time. But even if they do, he’s still severely disfigured, and making a recovery would surely be challenging. Jimmy was inevitably unable to admit his wrongdoings – still disillusioned that he was the hero all along and that his sacrifice was for the greater good. Curly became a symbol for all that is pure and worth saving.