Reception
"Without" premiered on American television on November 12, 2000 on Fox. The earned a Nielsen household rating of 9.0, meaning that it was seen by 9.0% of the nation's estimated households, and was viewed by 9.07 million households, and 15.1 million viewers. Fox promoted the episode with the tagline "Once in awhile, a story takes a turn that you never expect... Tonight is one of them." 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 was met with relatively positive reviews from critics. Jessica Morgan from Television Without Pity gave the episode a rare A+. The previous episode, "Within", also received an A+ grade, making them the only two episodes of The X-Files to receive the prestigious rating from the site. 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 five stars out of five. The two praised the episode's plot, citing the abduction and search for Mulder as components to the arcs "brilliance". Shearman and Pearson noted that the final scene, featuring Mulder surrounded by the alien bounty hunter was created with "beauty, emotion, and horror which in collision make The X-Files one of the best shows on TV." John Keegan from Critical Myth gave the episode an 8/10, referring to it as "one to watch again." He called the episode "fun much better than last year's trilogy." Television Without Pity gave the episode a rare A+. Ken Tucker from Entertainment Weekly was positive towards both this episode and the season premiere, "Within," awarding the episodes an A-. George Avalos and Michael Liedtke from the Contra Costa Times praised the episode and noted that the Scully/Dogget dynamic and the hunt for Fox Mulder worked towards the show's strengths. Tom Janulewicz from Space.com positively commented on Scully's conversion from skeptic to believer, writing, "Regardless of whether it's aliens, flukemen, or pizza delivering vampires, The X-Files is all about phenomena that don't stand in the face of 'rational' explanations. It took her a long time, but like Mulder before her, Scully eventually came to accept that there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in her philosophy."
Not all reviews were positive. Paula Vitaris from Cinefantastique gave the episode a more mixed review and awarded it two stars out of four. Vitaris criticized both Scully becoming the believer as well as the "sky turning out to be a helicopter gimmick", which she notes "has gotten way too old." Tom Kessenich, in his book Examinations wrote a relatively negative review of the episode. He noted, "All did was remind me why the show is a hollow shell of what it once was as long as Fox Mulder is strapped to an alien table and why The Doggett and Pony Show holds absolutely no appeal to me whatsoever."
Read more about this topic: Without (The X-Files)
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