Alan Sepinwall of The Star-Ledger found that the episode was an excellent showcase for both Katee Sackhoff and Grace Park, and praised director Michael Nankin who "[infused] this episode with the qualities of a nightmare." Michael Saba of Paste Magazine called the episode an "exercise in building tension through omission" and felt the episode was "excellent". IGN writer Eric Goldman praised the writers of the show for the plot turns in the episode, in particular the fact that Boomer's returning to the fleet with Ellen Tigh was in fact just a ruse. Goldman felt the subplot involving Kara was "a bit meandering" but that Katee Sackhoff and Roark Critchlow gave strong performances. Cinema Blend felt the writers "threw a neat little curveball" with the Roark Critchlow piano playing character being Thrace's father. Marc Bernardin of Entertainment Weekly felt the Boomer storyline was "awesome" but was less impressed by the storyline involving Thrace, feeling "that it didn't tell us anything new" and that the writers had written a very obvious ending to the subplot.
