Abhiroop Das
Created by Ken Cuperus and based on his eponymous Audible series, Hallmark’s ‘Mistletoe Murders’ begins in the quaint, cute town of Fletcher’s Grove, where everyone knows everyone, and festivals celebrate community and togetherness. For Emily Lane, however, things aren’t so clear-cut, as her time in the town is a respite from a much more thrilling, but also much more tragic past. Before she was known as the owner of a year-round Christmas Store, Emily went by Grace and had a different profession. As the mastermind behind one of the world’s most powerful hacking groups, she was no stranger to stirring up chaos, but with the group slowly turning towards terrorism, she had no choice but to let go of her own brainchild. That is, until season 3, when it is introduced back into the fold.
Chimera is a Fictional Hacking Collective With an Original Backstory Adapted for Television
Chimera, the clandestine hacking group in Mistletoe Murders, is ultimately a fictional creation by Ken Cuperus, the writer behind both the audiobook and television versions of ‘Mistletoe Murders.’ That being said, the group does seem to draw on elements of real-world cybercrime, specifically, hacktivism. Referring to a form of hacking typically advocating for a social cause, hacktivism is a bit different from other forms of activism in that it has a far greater range and scope for disruption. Chimera, as depicted in the show, seems to rest at the far end of the spectrum, given that the characters mainly use it to steal and redistribute money and other resources from powerful institutions.
While the Audible version of the narrative has an extended backstory for Emily and Chimera, Cuperus revealed that he had switched things up a bit for the Hallmark adaptation, specifically by revealing her backstory a lot earlier. He described developing this history as the favorite part of his writing process, and that is likely because of how much research and aesthetic richness that goes into the making of something like Chimera. While the name may be an in-universe nod to Emily’s love for Greek Mythology, Chimera is also the name of an actual hacking collective tracked by cybersecurity researchers worldwide.
Chimera Feels Loosely Reminiscent of Late 2000s Hacktivist Campaigns
Identified by MITRE ATT&CK as G0114, the suspected China-based group has been active since at least 2018 and is primarily associated with cyberespionage. Their targets often include semiconductor manufacturers in Taiwan, with hackers infiltrating private networks and extracting sensitive information. This isn’t exactly a good analog for the show’s version of Chimera, though, as it seems to operate more in a Robin Hood-esque manner. To that end, a better comparison might be, fittingly enough, Operation Robin Hood, a 2011 campaign announced by the hacktivist collectives Anonymous and TeaMp0isoN.
The name Anonymous is well known to anyone with even a basic interest in the world of hacking and cyber-activism, given their use of the Guy Fawkes masks and sweeping manner of attacks. Operation Robin Hood, partly their brainchild, was claimed to be inspired by the Occupy movement, as well as the broader resentment towards financial institutions. To that end, the campaign proposed using confidential payment information to fund donations to charities and support anti-government protests. While these proposals do line up with the redistributive modus operandi of the fictional Chimera group, and also line up in terms of a timeline, Ken Cuperus has not pointed towards there being any connection between Chimera and any real-life hacking group, which makes it a wholly unique invention.
You must be logged in to post a comment.