Paula Vitaris from "Cinefantastique" gave the episode a positive review and awarded it three stars out of four. She called Scully's unhappiness with her situation "understandable" and positively critiqued Gillian Anderson, calling her performance "wonderful". Vitaris, however, was critical of the "Leonard Betts"/"Never Again" switch, writing that "nothing in this episode points to fear of cancer as Scully's motivation". She concluded, however, that "['Never Again'] is a fascinating look at a whole new side of ." Not all reviews were glowing. Robert Shearman and Lars Pearson, in their book "Wanting to Believe: A Critical Guide to The X-Files, Millennium & The Lone Gunmen", on the other hand, gave the episode a mixed review and rated it two-and-a-half stars out of five. The two were critical of Scully's behavior, noting that "seeing Scully as angry and bored and believing her life is pointless isn't really Scully". They argued that Scully's belief that her life is boring is easily countered by the fact that "she hunts fluke monsters, catches serial killers, and gets abducted by aliens". Despite this, Shearman and Pearson wrote that "Gillian Anderson makes it work."