Excelsis Dei - Broadcast and Reception

Broadcast and Reception

"Excelsis Dei" premiered in the United States on the Fox network on December 16, 1994. This episode earned a Nielsen rating of 8.9, with a 15 share, meaning that roughly 8.9 percent of all television-equipped households, and 15 percent of households watching television, were tuned in to the episode. It was viewed by 8.5 million households.

Critical reception to the episode was mostly mixed. Entertainment Weekly gave the episode a grade of B-, calling it "offbeat and cute". Zack Handlen from The A.V. Club was mixed, writing that "the handling of the rape case left a bad taste in my mouth" and that the resolution was "a bit fuzzy". John Keegan from Critical Myth gave the episode a mixed review and awarded it a 6/10, noting "Overall, this episode focused on a very interesting concept, but the execution of that concept is so hopelessly convoluted that it’s lost in the shuffle. However, using the disturbing and abusive atmosphere of a nursing home as a setting provides chills without the addition of sinister spirits, so on a gut level, the episode works well." Sarah Stegall awarded the episode three stars out of five and noted "could have gotten five out of five", but that the episode's lack of closure and the presence of too many questions left unresolved caused it to be less than one of "the best episodes". Robert Shearman and Lars Pearson, in their book Wanting to Believe: A Critical Guide to The X-Files, Millennium & The Lone Gunmen, gave the episode a largely critical review and rated it one star out of five. The two referred to the entry as "the idiot's version" of the earlier episode "One Breath". Shearman and Pearson derided the handling of the rape, noting that "there's a sour atmosphere to the whole proceedings", pointing out that "only Scully shows the slightest concern that a woman's been sexually assaulted." However, the two called the ghost effects "eerie", but concluded that the scripting was "very stupid".