Reception
The episode earned a Nielsen household rating of 10.1, with a 16 share. It was viewed by 16.57 million viewers in the United States. On May 23, 1999 the episode premiered in the United Kingdom and Ireland on Sunday and gathered 860 thousand viewers, making it the fourth most watched episode that week, behind ER, The Simpsons and Friends. Fox promoted the episode with the tagline "The ultimate piece of the puzzle. Tonight, the conspiracy comes full-circle." Veronica Cartwright was nominated for an Emmy for "Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series" for her role in this episode and previous episode "Two Fathers". The previous episode, "Two Fathers" earned the show's crew the Emmy for "Outstanding Makeup for a Series". The make-up crew was nominated for an Emmy award in the category "Outstanding Makeup for a Series" and won. The episode was later included on The X-Files Mythology, Volume 3 – Colonization, a DVD collection that contains episodes involved with the alien Colonist's plans to take over the earth.
The episode received mostly positive reviews from critics. Tom Kessenich, in his book Examination: An Unauthorized Look at Seasons 6–9 of the X-Files wrote positively of the episode, saying "The 'Two Fathers'/'One Son' was extremely powerful stuff. Tightly written, beautifully filmed and filled with more affirmations than revelations, but fascination looks at the characters in the drama." John Keegan from Critical Myth gave the episode a 7 out of 10 rating and noted that, "Overall, this episode was the culmination of the Syndicate arc, bringing the mythology from the past three seasons into something of a resolution. Later additions to the mythology would make these explanations all but moot, but the writers deserve some credit for trying to pull it all together." Joyce Millman from Salon magazine said the episode (along with "Two Fathers") was one "of the most coherent, almost unbearably tense, hours in the series' run." She further stated that the episode gave some long-waited answers, but created new ones such as what has really happened to Samantha Mulder. Michigan Daily reviewer Melissa Runstrom said "One Son" along with "Two Fathers" and season finale "Biogenesis" were the highlights of the sixth season. Earl Cressey from DVD Talk named "One Son," along with "Two Fathers," as one of the "highlights of season six."
Zack Handlen of The A.V. Club awarded the episode a "B" rating. He concluded that the episode "has its moment", but is ultimately hurt by the fact that it refuses "to come to any serious conclusions", as well as "the inherent limitations of the form." Not all reviews were glowing. Paula Vitaris from Cinefantastique gave the episode a negative review and awarded it one-and-a-half stars out of four. Vitaris criticized the death scene of the Syndicate, noting that is was "clumsily contrived, allowing and Fowley to escape, but not because it makes sense, but because the show needs them to return at some point."
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