The video depicts a feeling of being trapped and overexposed, with shots of Lee underwater and the band performing live while spectators from the audience and elsewhere turn into demon-like bodies.

"[1] Lee later said that after completing the songs in Fallen that came out of an abusive relationship, she was listening to her words on "Going Under" and felt that in the chorus she would have liked to have written instead the notion of "I'm leaving and I'm not going to put up with this anymore", thinking to herself "you know what you need to do and you're not doing it.

[12] MusicOMH said it contains "Lee's temptress vocals, pseudo-electronic beats à la Linkin Park, understated but menacing metallic riffs in the background, and a ripping, radio-friendly rock chorus", alongside goth and pop elements.

[13] The Boston Globe said "Going Under" is "a mix of Lee's ethereal soprano, piano interludes, and layers of serrated guitar crunch".

[14] In the song, Lee "shifts from a deeper register to her piercing soprano above bracing nu-metal riffs", Rolling Stone wrote.

[10] Vik Bansal of MusicOMH said the song "is more than strong enough to ensure Evanescence aren't consigned to the bin of one-hit wonders" after "Bring Me To Life".

noted that "Going Under" was "the moment Lee stepped properly into the spotlight", and it became an "unassailable anthem for fans struggling through hard times".

[7] Christopher Gray of The Austin Chronicle said that "Going Under" is one of the album's songs connected by "yoking Lee's inner turmoil to the band's tumultuous riffs".

[22] In his criticism of the album, PopMatters writer Adrien Begrand deemed Lee's voice and delivery the song's highlight, with her vocals "swirl[ing] around the by-the-numbers guitars and drum machine".

[23] Christa Titus, writing for Billboard, regarded "Going Under" to be "just as impressive" as their debut single, and the combination of the guitar's "stop/start cadence", the "rippling piano" and Lee's "defiant wail pack a startling wallop.

[24] In 2011, Mary Ouellette of Loudwire placed "Going Under" at number seven on her list of 10 Best Evanescence songs, calling it a "perfect arena ready, anthemic rocker" and praising Lee's gradually increasing vocals, which show "her massive range and ability to control her larger than life pipes.

[37] The music video for "Going Under" was filmed in Berlin, Germany under the direction of Philipp Stölzl, the same director of the clip for "Bring Me to Life".

She stitched the white dress used in the underwater scenes during her recovery from an illness at a hotel in Los Angeles, California, which was the original filming location intended for the music video.

[39] In 2013, Lee explained that the video was a hint at the more plastic, darker side of fame, and "bit of a metaphor to my feelings about being so overexposed all of a sudden ...

"[16] According to Joe D'Angelo of MTV News, the shots of Lee drowning in the video show a "distressed and emotionally wrought heroine".

[47] "Going Under" can be heard in the credits of the video game Enter the Matrix, and also features at the end of the trailer of the 2006 film Tristan & Isolde.