Broadcast and Reception
"Requiem" first aired on Fox in the United States on May 21, 2000. This episode earned a Nielsen rating of 8.9, with a 14 share, meaning that roughly 8.9 percent of all television-equipped households, and 14 percent of households watching television, were tuned into the episode. It was viewed by 15.26 million viewers. "Requiem" marked a 3.8 percent decrease in viewers from the sixth season finale, "Biogenesis" and a 14.4 percent decrease from the seventh season premiere, "The Sixth Extinction." The episode aired in the United Kingdom and Ireland on Sky1 on August 13, 2000 and received 1.00 million viewers, making it the most watched episode that week. Fox promoted the episode with the tagline "Is this the end for Mulder?" 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. Todd VanDerWerff of The A.V. Club awarded the episode a "B+". He argued that the episode was "the best season finale cliffhanger the show ever did", and compared it to the second sea on finale "Anasazi"; he noted that while the latter episode was "pretty amazing", "Requiem" has "a finality" to it and a "sense that nothing will ever be the same". VanDerWerff also wrote that the nods to the pilot episode helped to show how far the series had come in seven years. Tom Kessenich, in his book Examinations, gave the episode a largely positive review. Despite lamenting the loss of Fox Mulder, he noted that "the truth is The X-Files has been a show like no other and 'Requiem' proved once again there truly is a place for magic and beauty and love on the small screen and I am delighted to have witnessed it for seven seasons now." Kessenich later named the episode one of the "Top 25 Episode of All Time" of The X-Files, ranking it at number 20.
Kenneth Silber from Space.com called the episode "intriguing" and wrote that, "The X-Files foundered for much of its seventh season, drifting through often inane "stand-alone" episodes while largely neglecting the series' alien-oriented 'mythology arc.' The season finale 'Requiem' marks a much-needed return to that mythology, and sets the stage for what might be an interesting eighth season." Rich Rosell from DigitallyObsessed.com awarded the episode 4.5 out of 5 stars and wrote "A lot of characters out of the woodwork come back for the season-ending cliffhanger But that's all window-dressing for a trio of big surprises that wrap up Season 7, in what many consider the show's death knell, or perhaps just a proper ending." 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 four stars out of five. The two noted that, despite the "lacklustre " season, the episode still managed to provided a good enough cliffhanger to hold fans until the premiere of the eighth season. Shearman and Pearson further noted that "Against the odds, after all the disappointments of the year, 'Requiem' is strong enough to leave its audience wanting more."
Paula Vitaris from Cinefantastique gave the episode a more mixed review and awarded it two stars out of four. Despite noting that the episode was "the best mytharc episode and season finale in years", she called the episode's finale "one of the most egregious missteps yet in The X-Files mythology".
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