Detour (The X-Files) - Reception

Reception

"Detour" premiered on the Fox network on November 23, 1997. This episode earned a Nielsen rating of 13.2, with a 19 share, meaning that roughly 13.2 percent of all television-equipped households, and 19 percent of households watching television, were tuned in to the episode. It was viewed by 22.8 million viewers.

The episode received mixed reviews from critics. IGN named it the seventh best standalone X-Files episode of the entire series. The site called the sequence wherein "Scully holds a wounded Mulder and sings 'Jeremiah was a Bullfrog' " the "best scene" of the episode and praised the depth of the characters' relationship. Zack Handlen from The A.V. Club gave the episode an A and called it a "solid" entry in the series. Handlen complimented the episode's cold opening, structure, monster, and the relationship between Mulder and Scully. For the latter, he wrote that the "core relationship" between Mulder and Scully "was remarkably strong". Handlen noted that the two's conversation in the woods was reminiscent of the third season episode "Quagmire" and was "sweet".

Other reviews were more mixed. John Keegan from Critical Myth gave the episode a 7 out of 10, and wrote "Overall, this episode is a somewhat light-hearted departure from the mythology installments and out-of-continuity flights of fancy that would dominate the early fifth season. While the character-driven moments are a highlight, the actual 'case' is far from special, often digressing from its purpose as a trigger for the character work. In the end, it’s fairly average." Paula Vitaris from Cinefantastique gave the episode a mixed review and awarded it two stars out of four. She called the scene featuring Scully singing to Mulder "a failed attempt to create 'a special X-Files moment'" and noted that the sequence was "a poor substitute for meaningful dialogue". Vitaris, however, did applaud the guest cast and called the creature's effects "very creepy". Robert Shearman and Lars Pearson, in their book Wanting to Believe: A Critical Guide to The X-Files, Millennium & The Lone Gunmen, rated the episode two stars out of five. The two noted that it replicated "Quagmire" too much for its own good and was "satisfied with the intention alone". They reasoned that because "it's so busy telling us how cute the interplay" between Mulder and Scully is, the episode "forgets to make it any good". Shearman and Pearson also called the Spanish conquistador revelation "so utterly left field it feels self-parodic."