Tom Jorgensen gave the episode 7 out of 10 for IGN, stating "Michael B. Jordan's strong vocal performance adds dimension to an already-great villain", with Killmonger's rescue of Stark being "a solid starting point for the episode, rooted in MCU history". Jorgensen felt this divergence from MCU canon worked better than the previous episode's, with Killmonger manipulating Stark "especially insidious [...] because we can feel Killmonger pushing Stark away from his heroic destiny". Jorgensen believed that Killmonger's intelligence in the episode made his depiction in Black Panther (2018) more impressive, whilst he noted the voice performances as "ris[ing] above the low bar for voice acting the series has set up to this point". However, Jorgensen felt that T'Chaka trusting Killmonger was inconsistent with his personality, and criticized the climactic battle as lacking stakes, and wrote the ending "hardly feels like a resolution".
Writing for Men's Health, Evan Romano felt...[1] Gavin Jasper of Den of Geek said the episode "might be the flattest episode" of the series so far...[2] Kaitlyn Booth of Bleeding Cool was critical of the episode, saying...[3]