Piper Maru - Broadcast and Reception

Broadcast and Reception

It's at this point in the mythology that the onus subtly shifts from Scully coming up with alternate theories of what's going on that make just as much sense as what Mulder's saying to the show desperately trying to keep Scully from knowing things so she can fit into her predetermined "skeptic" role. It mostly works here, because she's busy grieving her sister and being angry that the case into her sister's murder has been closed and coming up with knowledge about radiation burns and stuff, but it becomes more and more of a problem as the series goes along and it becomes more and more obvious that Mulder was right all along.

"Piper Maru" premiered on the Fox network on February 9, 1996, and was first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC Two on November 27, 1996. The episode earned a Nielsen household rating of 10.6 with an 18 share, meaning that roughly 10.6 percent of all television-equipped households, and 18 percent of households watching television, were tuned in to the episode. A total of 16.44 million viewers watched this episode during its original airing.

"Piper Maru" received positive reviews from critics. In an overview of the third season in Entertainment Weekly, the episode was rated an A. The review described "Piper Maru" as featuring "a tough and sentimental Scully", noting that "action-packed detective work by Mulder enhance an already crackling scenario." Reviewer Todd VanDerWerff of The A.V. Club gave the episode an A and wrote positively of the unfolding mythology, noting that the "great thing about "Piper Maru" is that it still belongs to the period of time when the mythology episodes were exposing us to more pieces of the puzzle, fitting in various things that we were meant to incorporate into the whole. This is the first time we meet the black oil, but it's obvious that others know all about it". Critical Myth's John Keegan gave the episode eight out of ten, and complimented the introduction of the black oil, writing "this episode is a good introduction to the black oil virus, providing a bridge from the mythology elements earlier in the season to the larger scope of the conspiracy to be revealed."

The introduction of the sentient black oil in this episode has also been met with positive criticism. The oil has been described as "the most original and frightening creation of The X-Files' mythology", and has been listed as number two on Den of Geek's "Top 10 X-Files Baddies" countdown, where it was described as "a central part" of the series' mythology.

Gillian Anderson considered the episode an emotionally difficult one, saying "Piper Maru was challenging. There was something about it - having to pull from the past... how it brought the present and the past together. It was just good to play." Director Kim Manners complimented Anderson's performance, stating "you look at season one and look at season three and that girl exploded as an actress in terms of talent and capability." The 2004 film Alien vs. Predator featured an icebreaker named the Piper Maru, the naming of the ship being a nod to this episode.