Cinefantastique gave the episode a moderately negative review and awarded it one-and-a-half stars out of four. Vitaris called the outing "a lost opportunity," noting that the episode's humor "falls flat, because the humor exists in a vacuum". Furthermore, she argued that if the episode had been played-straight, then "Syzygy" could have "been a horror classic". 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 two stars out of five. The two criticized the episode for following on the heels of Darin Morgan's "War of the Coprophages", which they argued was a superior episode of the series. Shearman and Pearson further noted that the episode was "simply not very funny". Fox Mulder and Dana Scully's odd behavior towards each other resulted in criticism from critics and fans on the Internet. Vitaris called the relationship between Mulder and Scully in the episode "ugly". Shearman and Pearson called the scenes featuring Mulder and Scully's bickering "hard to stomach". Chris Carter was somewhat disappointed in the reaction that the episode received, stating that there were hints to the satiric nature of the episode strewn throughout "Syzygy" that fans simply did not understand. Other fans understood what transpired, but disliked the episode due to their desire for Mulder and Scully to become a romantically involved couple. X-Files fans in San Francisco printed up T-shirts featuring the phrase "Sure. Fine. Whatever." spoken multiple times by Scully in this episode. Footnotes Bibliography External links "Syzygy" on The X-Files official website 1996 American television episodes Television episodes written by Chris Carter Television episodes set in New Hampshire The X-Files (season 3) episodes Television episodes about Satanism