Minear's original story for the episode was one where a convicted criminal who happened to be an atheist would have heard the voice of God, commanding him to kill a truly evil man.

Frequent series writer Frank Spotnitz suggested that Minear should use fan favorite Robert Modell.

In Lorton, Virginia, Robert Patrick Modell escapes from a prison hospital, after which the guard on duty dazedly says, "He had to go."

Later, Modell is holding a picture of a young woman in a house where a man is covered in Cerulean Blue paint.

A paint smudge leads the agents to Nathan's wife Linda, a realtor who has an appointment with a "Mr. Fox Mulder" at a commercial property.

That night, Mulder visits the address and finds Scully pointing a gun at him and claiming to be controlled by Linda; she kills herself.

In Skinner's office, Linda Bowman's brain scan shows an advanced temporal lobe tumor, just like her fraternal twin, Robert Modell; the two had been separated at birth.

"[3] Executive producer Frank Spotnitz suggested that the "convicted atheist" be replaced with Robert Modell from the third season episode "Pusher".

Minear thus put aside the "Word of God" story (as it was called), and worked with Gilligan to write the final script.

In order to dress the set, the structure had to be cleared of aged detritus and garbage; this required the destruction of several large sump pumps, which were "jackhammered into smithereens".

[3] The body of Nathan Bowman, Linda's husband, was created by drenching an in-house dummy with the correct shade of paint.

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 three-and-a-half stars out of five.

The two wrote that, while "it lacks Vince Gilligan's trademark wit", the episode takes the plot threads started in "Pusher" to their "logical conclusions".

[6] Shearman and Pearson explained that the episode's acting, most notably that of Robert Wisden and Diana Scarwid, "helps raise 'Kitsunegari' above the average.

[7] Handlen cited the change in Modell's personality, his lack of a desire to kill, and Scully's portrayal as a "humorless scold who only sees the truth when required to for narrative convenience" as reasons why the episode was weak.

Black argues that, in this episode, Gilligan and Minear's writing evokes the same zero-sum sense of sadness that would eventually run throughout Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul.