"Je Souhaite" earned a Nielsen household rating of 8.2, being watched by 12.79 million people in its initial broadcast, and received mostly positive reviews from critics.

The show centers on FBI special agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) who work on cases linked to the paranormal, called X-Files.

In this episode, Mulder and Scully encounter a man and his physically disabled brother who lead the agents to an indifferent genie whose willingness to grant wishes belies a deeper motive.

The episode featured several elaborate "genie effects" that were created through digital technology; this included manipulating stock footage of former American President Richard Nixon and Italian dictator Benito Mussolini.

FBI agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) speak with the boss, Jay Gilmore, after surgery to fix his mouth, which has left him disfigured and with a speech impediment.

They question Stokes' brother Leslie at their mobile home, which inexplicably has a large boat in its tiny front yard.

Mulder and Scully search the container and find old antiques and a picture of the previous owner with the woman from the mobile home.

He learns that the man in the picture was extremely wealthy and lucky for a short period, before he died with a giant oversized penis.

Using facial recognition software in the meantime, Mulder finds pictures of the jinniyah next to Benito Mussolini in the 1930s and next to Richard Nixon in the 1960s, two men that had a lot of power and then lost it.

They go to the Stokes residence and arrive just as Leslie finally decides to wish for functional legs and Anson blows up the house trying to light the stove in an attempt to warm up.

"[5] After finalizing his script, Gilligan began to worry that he had "painted himself in a corner": "I did not intend to write a hard episode to direct [...] But before I realize it, I was blowing up a trailer, having a truck hit an invisible man, and all sorts of genie effects.

Anderson then attempted to match her movements so that, when the two strips of film were combined during the editing stage, they would create the illusion of one composite whole.

Paula Sorge, who played Jenn, was then blue screened and the subsequent shot was "dirtied up" to properly age the film.

[7] During the scene where Mulder wanders into a deserted city street, the production crew had to close off eight blocks of downtown Los Angeles.

[12] VanDerWerff argued that the episode possessed a "warmth and tenderness" that was missing from the following two seasons, after Duchovny left the series as a full-time star.

"[12] Rob Bricken from Topless Robot named "Je Souhaite" the second most funny X-Files episode, writing, "Best line: When Scully, ever the skeptic, begins trying to rationalize her examination of an invisible body, Mulder replies with an exasperated, 'Oh!'

"[13] 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 five stars out of five.

[15] She called Paula Sorge "one of the best guest actors of the season" and praised her acting, noting that she delivers her lines "with snap, bite, and wonderful dark humor.

"[15] Vitaris, however, did note that the episode "would have worked better if it had consisted of a half-hour encounter between Mulder, Scully, and Jenn, and she heavily criticized the stereotypical portrayal of the guest cast as a group of poor Southerners.