 Paula Vitaris, writing for "Cinefantastique", rated "Zero Sum" one-and-a-half stars out of four, noting that its "pacing and tone are off".Vitaris felt that "Duchovny and Pileggi give good performances", despite Pileggi seeming "unintentionally comic" at times; though she noted that "an episode without Scully feels pretty empty".Robert Shearman and Lars Pearson, in their book "Wanting to Believe