 " Powers , Principalities , Thrones and Dominions " received mostly positive reviews from critics . The A.V. Club 's Zack Handlen rated the episode an A , describing it as " gleefully grim " . Handlen felt that the episode represented the series coming into its own , noting that " Millennium , after weeks of hinting at possibilities without delivering much of anything , has finally started to give a real sense that yes , there is a lot of bad news happening , and it really does make a twisted kind of sense " . Bill Gibron , writing for DVD Talk , rated the episode 3 @.@ 5 out of 5 , noting that it shared similar themes with the direction the series would take in its second season . Gibron described the episode as " spooky and somewhat surreal " , adding that " the entire installment [ sic ] crackles with possibilities " . Robert Shearman and Lars Pearson , in their book Wanting to Believe : A Critical Guide to The X @-@ Files , Millennium & The Lone Gunmen , rated " Powers , Principalities , Thrones and Dominions " four stars out of five , describing it as being " surprising , intriguing , moody and pretentious " . Shearman compared the episode thematically to Mann 's earlier script for " The Judge " , and noted that while the story " doesn 't make for an especially comprehensible yarn , it does produce an episode that is genuinely uneasy viewing " . 
