compared to the previous season finale. The season ranked as the twelfth most watched television series during the 1996–97 year, with an average of 19.2 million viewers, making it, at the time, the highest-rated season of The X-Files to air. Reviews The fourth season of The X-Files received largely positive reviews from television critics, although several critics noted that the season was not as good as its predecessors. The Contra Costa Times noted that The X-Files during its fourth year was creatively good and "always fascinating even when it's frustrating." Rick Kushman Bee of the Sacramento Bee wrote that Fox' Sunday block of The Simpsons, King of the Hill and The X-Files was televisions "real 'Must See TV'". Matt Roush of USA Today wrote that the fourth season was not the series' best year, but "when good, [The X-Files is] still shockingly great". Zack Handlen of The A.V. Club gave an overall positive review of the season and wrote that many of the episodes dabbled in existentialism. However, he also contended that many of the mythology episodes—especially the season finale—began to have "a ring of familiarity to" them and that "the repetition is getting old". Episodic reviews were diverse. Some episodes were praised. Robert Shearman and Lars Pearson, in their book Wanting to Believe: A Critical Guide to The X-Files, Millennium & The Lone Gunmen, rated the episodes "Home", "Unruhe", "Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man", "Paper Hearts", and "Small Potatoes" five stars out of five. Paula Vitaris of Cinefantastique also awarded "Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man", "Paper Hearts", and "Small Potatoes" perfect scores of four out of four. Tom Kessenich named "Memento Mori" the fourth best episode of the series, writing that it was the definitive example of Mulder and Scully's devotion for each other.". He also wrote highly of "Home", "Paper Hearts", Small Potatoes", and "Never Again", ranking them as the fifth, eleventh, sixteenth, and twenty-fourth best episodes of The X-Files, respectively. Other episodes were derided. Shearman and Pearson called "El Mundo Gira" an "aching unambitious take on Latin American culture" and "rubbish". Vitaris summaried "Unrequited" as a "slight story that collapses under the weight of its message". "Gethsemane" created intense media speculation about whether or not Mulder was actually dead. An article in the Wall Street Journal discussed fan theories behind Mulder's madness while a cartoon ran in The New Yorker a few weeks later surrounding