Josh Washington

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## Amazing Baddie

* Masked
* Unmasked

### Alias

Josh
The Killer
The Psycho
The Maniac
The Puppet Master

### Allies

Chris Hartley (best friend)
Sam Giddings
Mike Munroe
Matt Taylor
Emily Davis
Ashley Brown
Jessica Riley

### Powers/Skills

Wealth
Intelligence
Engineering skills
Manipulation
Charisma
Deception
Strength

### Goals

Make the group suffer for indirectly causing the deaths of his twin sisters and humiliate them by sending his "prank" to the internet (failed).
Get Chris and Ashley together (implied; determinant).

### Worst Actions

Killing several pigs for fake guts in order to fake his own death.
Giving Ashley a black eye for stabbing him.
Filming Sam taking a bath without her permission.

### Kill Count

1 (onscreen; via cannibalism)
Several pigs (offscreen)
4 (attempted)

### Crimes

Terrorism
Torture
Assault
Kidnapping
Psychological abuse
Unlawful imprisonment
Reckless endangerment
Attempted pseudocide
Animal cruelty
Cannibalism (if alive)
Murder
Stalking
Brainwashing

### Type of AB

Tragic Mastermind

**Joshua "Josh" Washington**, also called "**The Psycho**", is the secondary antagonist of the 2015 video game *Until Dawn*.

He is the older brother of the missing twins, Beth and Hannah; unbeknownst to the other main playable characters, he blames his closest friends for their disappearance as a result of the prank that prompted Hannah and Beth to leave the lodge in the first place, and he has arranged a prank of his own to get revenge.

He was voiced by Rami Malek.

## His Brilliance and Evil Rankings

### What Makes Him Amazing?

* He's incredibly tragic for several reasons:
	+ Since the age of 11, he was diagnosed with schizophrenia and depression, given multiple therapists and medications, and it simply never worked out for him.
	+ He states that his father's too busy to hang out with him anymore, implying parental neglect.
	+ One night during a vacation where Josh was passed out drunk, his friends decided to prey on his younger sister Hannah's insecure crush on Mike, pulling a prank where he faked reciprocating those feelings. When Hannah discovered that it was all a sick joke, she got embarrassed and ran outside into a blizzard, her twin sister Beth following her in hopes that she'd come back.
	+ When both sisters died and never returned, Josh attempted suicide and then sought revenge on the people who hurt his family.
	+ It's implied that his prank was secretly intended to be a cry for help rather than anything malicious, which would make him insecure. Sam even accuses him of such if she finds all the clues in his workshop.
	+ His breakdown in the caves is played for sympathy, crying hysterical tears as he hallucinates his blood-covered sisters blaming him for their deaths. It shows that he feels self-deprecation as well.
	+ Regardless of player choice, he's the only main protagonist who doesn't get a happy ending while at the same time never having the chance to fully redeem himself, making him a scapegoat. He either gets killed by Hannah (his own sister) who turned into a Wendigo, or becomes a Wendigo himself, the latter of which is by all means a fate worse than death because it's a nigh-invincible cannibal demon depriving him of free will while in possession of his body.
* Again, he deeply loves his sisters since his primary motive is to avenge them.
* He has moral agency issues due to his obvious insanity. He suffers visual and auditory hallucinations, and at the time he genuinely believed that his scheme as the Psycho was all just doing some fun prank/game that'd be socially acceptable to his friends. In the shed, he asks Chris and Mike to order pizza like a child having a sleepover with his friends. Even Chris and Mike see that he's "out of his fucking tree" due to being off his meds.
* He shows remorse for what his actions led to, mourning the mutilated corpses of the Stranger and his friends in the caves. He also sincerely apologizes to Mike after hearing of Jessica's possible death.
* He appears to be somewhat in love with Sam, and the feeling is mutual. If Sam survives until dawn, she recounts once believing that she had a heartfelt connection with Josh as he would often come talk to her after his sisters disappeared, calling her "the only one who understood him".
	+ During the game's main events, they do a fair amount of flirting at the end of Chapter 2. Despite stalking and chasing her wearing only a towel at the end of Chapter 5, Josh sincerely apologizes for knocking out Sam and doesn't abuse her afterwards, instead putting her in another room so she wouldn't get herself hurt while also leaving a fresh set of clothes for when she woke up (it's also implied that he actually *wanted* her to escape the chase so she'd find the clues in his workshop and thus understand he was crying for help deep down).
	+ Overall, Sam seems more just upset than angry at Josh for his actions since she shows no ill will towards him despite everything that happened, even scolding Chris for (possibly) hitting Josh in the shed.
* It's implied that he targeted Chris and Ashley mainly so they'd finally get together, knowing their mutual crush on each other. In chapter 2, Josh exclaims his belief that they need "alone time", "something to bond over", and a "traumatic event to send them into each other's arms".
	+ He even calls himself a healer who brings people together while Chris and Mike are taking him to the shed. This makes Josh somewhat of an extremist, trying to help his childhood best friend get a girlfriend.

### What Makes Him Heinous?

* He killed pigs for fake guts so he could fake his own death.
* He forces Chris to choose between saving either himself or Ashley from getting sawed in half. Although to be fair, Josh rigged it so that nobody *actually* died.
* He films Sam taking a bath without her consent, and then chases her around the lodge wearing nothing but a towel. If she doesn't escape the ensuing chase, he'll use anesthesia to knock her out.
* If Ashley stabs Josh, he'll punch her out cold in retaliation, giving her a black eye.
* He gives Chris a pistol and forces him to choose between shooting himself, Ashley, or letting both die from the descending sawblades on the ceiling. Again though, Josh made sure the saws didn't go all the way down and put blanks in the gun instead of actual bullets, so nobody died as a direct result.
	+ Later on, Josh will mock Chris if he chose to shoot Ashley.
* He planned to upload a video of everything he did as the Psycho on the internet.

## Trivia

* Josh is currently the only *Until Dawn* villain to be an Amazing Baddie.
* Originally, he didn't qualify as it was believed that his crimes were completely accidental (which is evidential with his immense amount of remorse) and he was far too insane to count. However, it was confirmed that he does have moral agency in spite of his sociopathy and he intended to post a video onto the internet about everything he did as the Psycho. Thus, Josh was discussed and approved as an Amazing Baddie.

## External Links

* Josh Washington on the Villains Wiki
* Josh Washington on the *Until Dawn* Wiki
* Josh Washington on the Heroes Wiki