 The episode received a rating of 91% with an average score of 7.3 out of 10 on the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes.Matt Fowler of IGN gave the episode an "okay" 6.8 out of 10 and wrote in his verdict, "'Prisoners' primarily focused on Gordon and Penguin's separate stories, heaping on an impressive amount of misery while also giving us a languid episode full of predictable beats.