 Tor.com reviewer Meghan Deans was more critical of the episode, writing that it had a "flawed construction that diminishes what should have been one of the series' smartest and most affectionate demonstrations of self-parody".She found the way it attempted to depict Van Blundht as a sympathetic villain and play rape for laughs to be unsettling.However, she did praise the way the episode continued the comedic tradition of making fun of Mulder.