Keith DeCandido reviewed the episode for Tor.com and, while praising the resolution to the Dominion War, said that it failed as the finale to "Deep Space Nine", stating that the end of the war and the end of the TV series are not synonymous. He expressed disappointment in the series' failure to resolve Sisko's primary goal of getting Bajor into the Federation. DeCandido compared the episode to other "Star Trek" series finales, writing, "' revisited , ' got , and "" ended with Earth helping form the Coalition of Planets that would eventually mutate into the Federation. But "DS9" blew the landing by treating the show like "Star Trek: The Dominion War"." He rated the episode 6/10.