 Television Without Pity ranked " Our Town " the fifth most nightmare @-@ inducing episode of the show . 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 wrote positively of Spotnitz juxtapositions , praising the idea to frame the themes around cannibalism . However , they wrote that " Spotnitz pushes the metaphor too far " , citing the ending scene as evidence . Shearman and Pearson also criticized both Bowman 's directing , noting it lacked the flourishes to make " Spotnitz ' strange black comedy work " , and Mark Snow 's score . They noted that Snow was on " autopilot " and that his soundtrack was " the same horn anthem he gives any character who 's taken a little too much from a tribal culture . " The two further criticized the series ' use of the capture of Scully as a mechanism for Mulder to spring into action . 
