Reception
"Clyde Bruckmann's Final Repose" earned a Nielsen rating of 10.2, with an 18 share, meaning that roughly 10.2 percent of all television-equipped households, and 18 percent of households watching television, were tuned in to the episode. The episode was watched by 15.38 million viewers. It was named the tenth greatest episode in television history by TV Guide. The success of the episode led to it earning two Primetime Emmy Awards—writer Darin Morgan won the Emmy for Outstanding Writing in a Drama Series, while Peter Boyle won the Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series.
David Duchovny considers this episode one of his favorites of the third season. David Nutter called it one of the most enjoyable shows he had done. He also said of the episode "The writing was so tight and so crisp and so fresh that I think, as a director, the only thing you have to do is create the atmosphere, set up the characters, set up the shots and you are basically invisible. Then you step back and just let it happen." Frank Spotnitz stated that the episode worked on every level and is his favorite of those episodes written for the show by Morgan.
"Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose" received praise from critics as well. Author Phil Farrand rated the episode as his third favorite episode of the first four seasons in his book The Nitpickers Guide to the X-Files. Entertainment Weekly gave the episode a rare A+, writing "Boyle gets lots of help from another superlative, laugh-a-minute script Nicely captures one of the overarching themes of the show: fate and man's isolation." Reviewer Zack Handlen of The A.V. Club gave the episode an A and wrote positively of the ending, saying "For an episode that ends with a likable character killing himself, 'Bruckman' isn't what I'd call a downer." Review website IGN named it the best standalone X-Files episode of the entire series, writing that the episode " is a distinctive episode of the series, mixing a healthy amount of humor with some very nasty business In just 44 minutes, Boyle creates a fully formed character who makes a big impact in his one and only appearance." Topless Robot named it the ninth funniest episode of the series. Starpulse listed it as the third best X-Files episode. Charlie Jane Anders and Javier Grillo-Marxuach of io9 included it on the list of "10 TV Episodes that Changed Television".
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