The Pine Bluff Variant - Broadcast and Reception

Broadcast and Reception

"The Pine Bluff Variant" premiered on the Fox network in the United States on May 3, 1998. The episode later debuted in the United Kingdom on BBC One on March 3, 1999. It earned a Nielsen household rating of 11.4, meaning that roughly 11.4 percent of all television-equipped households were tuned in to the episode. It was viewed by 18.24 million viewers.

"The Pine Bluff Variant" received largely positive reviews from a variety of sources. Andy Meisler, in his 1999 book Resist or Serve: The Official Guide to The X-Files, Vol. 4, noted that the episode was particularly well received by fans on the internet, due to its realistic conceit. Zack Handlen from The A.V. Club wrote positively of the entry and awarded it an "A". He called it "an excellent episode" that is "notable for its tension" and the fact that it "seemingly tells a story that has little to do with the X-Files or Mulder and Scully's search for the truth—right up until the final twist." Furthermore, Handlen called Shiban's script "by far his best" and noted that the melted corpses in the episode provided "a striking, deeply creepy visual". 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 called the entry "cleverer than most" latter season episodes that feature Mulder or Scully undergoing a psychotic break, due to its "straight-forward thriller" sensibilities.

Paula Vitaris from Cinefantastique gave the episode a moderately positive review and awarded it two-and-a-half star out of four. Vitaris called the episode "an absorbing hour of entertainment." She did, however, identify the red herring in which Scully suspects Mulder as the weakest part of the story, noting that Mulder "would throw in with terrorists". Other reviews were more mixed. John Keegan from Critical Myth awarded the episode a 6 out of 10. He wrote that, while the episode "brings to light some interesting aspects of the latter half of the fifth season" the "internal logic of the story is often suspect." He concluded that, despite "a number of scenes that presage the feature film and point out important character dynamics", there are an equal number of "plot contrivances and conveniences" that bog the episode down.