The episode received mostly positive reviews from television critics. Zack Handlen from "The A.V. Club" was positive towards the episode and gave it an A. He applauded the fact that it "lets Scully be flawed" and allowed her to be "far more human" than usual on the show. Handlen concluded that the episode was a success because it illustrated "the way our need to connect with others makes us vulnerable". He was, however, critical of Mulder's actions in the episode, calling him a "spoiled ass" and noted that there was a "little boy ignored feel to his dialogue at the end". Meghan Deans from Tor.com wrote positively of the episode and noted that "t is fortunate, I think, that the Super Bowl forced the change in sequence." She argued that, had "Leonard Betts" not aired before "Never Again", the audience would have been forced to "read her actions as reactions to Mulder and Mulder alone" rather than against the fact that she has cancer.