Agua Mala - Broadcast and Reception

Broadcast and Reception

"Agua Mala" first aired in the United States on February 21, 1999. This episode earned a Nielsen rating of 10.1, meaning that roughly 10.1 percent of all television-equipped households were tuned in to the episode. It was viewed by 16.90 million viewers. The episode aired in the United Kingdom and Ireland on Sky1 on June 6, 1999 and received 0.95 million viewers, making it the third most watched episode that week. Fox promoted the episode with the tagline "Tonight, a creature living in our water has just gotten thirsty, for us."

The episode received mostly mixed to negative reviews. Michael Liedtke and George Avalos, in a review of the sixth season in The Charlotte Observer, called the episode "just plain bad". Todd VanDerWerff of The A.V. Club roundly criticized the episode and awarded it a "D–", calling it "a famously bad episode of The X-Files." He noted that "the worst thing about 'Agua Mala' is that it comes so very, very close to working that it’s frustrating to see just how little it actually does" due to its bizarre structure and convoluted antagonist. VanDerWerff criticized Darren McGavin's appearance in the episode, calling it a "glorified cameo", and noted that his character function as the "kind of old man who stands on his porch and yells about the good old days to the neighborhood kids." He did however, call the shot of the "writhing tentacle in the overhead lamp" the "one good thing" in the episode. 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 one-and-a-half stars out of five, writing that the episode's "laughs aren't clever, and the scares are silly".

Not all reviews were completely negative; others were more mixed. Tom Kessenich, in his book Examination: An Unauthorized Look at Seasons 6–9 of the X-Files gave the episode a mixed review, writing "as far as go, 'Agua Mala' was pretty standard fare." However, he criticized the episodes resolution, noting that Scully should have had no way to know pure water would kill the creature. Paula Vitaris from Cinefantastique gave the episode a mixed review and awarded it two stars out of four. Vitaris wrote that, "'Augua Mala' won't end up on anybody's 'best of' list, but it's so silly that it's sort of fun." Timothy Sexton from Yahoo! News named "The Hurricane Monster" as one of "The Best X-Files Monsters of the Week", writing, "I'll tell you one thing about this X-Files episode and this X-Files monster: you'll never go to the bathroom during a rainstorm again without thinking twice."