Mother Knows Best (song) own gains. Falco continued, "The audience knows what Gothel wants with Rapunzel, but the fact that we are unable to protect the naïve princess results in further hatred for the witch." Falco also concluded that Gothel's "sinister reprise at the end of "Tangled" allows for these horrifying undertones to emerge, which makes 'Mother Knows Best' one of the most sinister villain songs in the Disney library." Similarly, Elissa Smith of Paper Droids wrote that while the audience is fully aware of Gothel's evil intentions, Rapunzel is denied "the outsider's point of view." Glen Chapman of Den of Geek wrote that
Mother Knows Best (song) Gothel as an abusive mother, writing, "she is manipulative, dishonest, and dedicated to undermining her daughter's independence. This is shown consistently through all her appearances in the film, but comes out clearly very early indeed, with the song 'Mother Knows Best'. Critics have often identified the sequence as one of the film's darkest and edgiest moments. Acknowledging the song's "extremely dark undertone", Anthony Falco of Film Class Junkies wrote, "This song rues in the fact that a child is impressionable; Rapunzel believes that Mother Gothel has the best intentions, but obviously, the evil witch is using the princess for her