 Vitaris praised the episode's visual effects; however, she felt that the two parts of the story would have better served as "a taut one-hour episode".Vitaris also felt that the episode's final act, featuring Mulder on an airplane, saw Mulder uncharacteristically putting civilians at risk and was an example of "out and out bad writing".Robert Shearman and Lars Pearson, in their book "Wanting to Believe