Abhiroop Das
Created by Ken Cuperus, Hallmark’s ‘Mistletoe Murders’ follows Emily Lane, who appears perfectly ordinary at first glance, and so does her year-round Christmas shop. However, she seems to have a rather dark past that she’d prefer to keep a secret. When a string of murders begins to terrorize her small town, Emily has no choice but to dig into her old bag of special skills and use them to solve crime. But her mission faces unexpected hurdles when the local detective, Sam Wilner, starts to suspect her instead. As their paths intersect, both characters clash head-on, while the murder mystery continues to haunt every scene. An adaptation of the Audible Original audio series of the same name, the story culminates in peeling back one layer of its big mystery. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Mistletoe Murders Season 1 Plot Recap
‘Mistletoe Murders’ begins in the small, cozy town of Fletcher’s Grove, where newcomer Emily Lane has a year-round Christmas shop and lives with her cute little pet dogs, Mosley and Doyle. While she mostly prefers to be alone, Emily makes an exception when it comes to her friend and veterinarian June, who recently got engaged to her partner, Marcus. However, tragedy strikes one night when Emily learns that Marcus was murdered during a trip to the Christmas Tree Farm, which sparks a long and complicated investigation. When it’s discovered that Marcus was poisoned with a material named pentobarbital, commonly used to euthanize animals, June gets taken into custody, prompting Emily to conduct an investigation of her own to prove her friend’s innocence, much to the annoyance of the police chief, Sam Wilner.
While everyone knows Emily as a kind, unassuming resident of the town, the reality is a lot different. Out of a hidden compartment in her home comes a box full of high-tech gadgets, primarily used for intelligence gathering and espionage, revealing that she once used to be a specialist in the field. Using these tools, as well as her piercing intellect, Emily soon uncovers that Marcus’ ex-partner, Lizzy, was also in the farmhouse that night, and that the real reason for their presence was to pay off a blackmailer who knew about Lizzy being pregnant with Marcus’ child. The killer, however, doesn’t turn out to be the blackmailer, but rather a man named Rowan, who worked at the farm and was trying to kill the owner with poisoned alcohol, but struck Marcus instead. With the case resolved, peace momentarily returns to the town, with Emily and Sam slowly growing closer, only for another near-death accident to stir things up.
This time, the person of interest is a woman named Debbie, who famously leads the town’s choir. When Emily learns that the choir lead before her, Clara, died in a suspicious-seeming hit-and-run case, she begins to consider that all of these incidents might be connected. Her hunch turns out to be correct when it’s discovered that the choir’s instructor, Vera, is behind the death of Clara, as well as the attempted murder of Debbie. Even this mystery pales, however, in front of the one that Emily faces at a party hosted by the local bookstore owner, Glenn Shaw, who is mysteriously killed that very night. Emily, alongside four other people, is then left with clues about a treasure hunt, created by Glenn before his death, which promises to explain how he died in the first place. Emily, however, has even greater concerns to deal with, and all of it points back to the past she has been trying so desperately to suppress.
Mistletoe Murders Season 1 Ending: What is Emily’s Real Name? What is Her Past?
‘Mistletoe Murders’ ends its first season by bringing us one step closer to figuring out Emily’s real identity, starting with the fact that Emily isn’t her real name at all. While we aren’t given a direct answer as to who she is, the final moments do suggest that she is about to spill the beans to Sam. Throughout the six episodes, the show consciously skirts around the subject of her identity or past life, giving us just enough clues to paint a vague picture. So far, we know for certain that she is a genius hacker and has at least some background in intelligence gathering, most likely espionage. With the last scene of the season, another piece of the puzzle is revealed, suggesting that she is somehow connected to the government.
While all this time we focus on Emily and her investigative prowess, Sam seems to have been conducting an investigation of his own, particularly into her past. This makes sense in retrospect, considering that Sam quickly caught on that Emily was a bit too interested in the casework and adept at fishing for information. Upon doing a background check, he discovers that Emily has been lying about her family’s whereabouts, but before he can dig any deeper, he gets a call from someone higher-up, instructing him to drop the investigation entirely. This single moment shifts the scope of the series entirely, as now we are met with two broad possibilities, both of which promise to make things a lot more dangerous for everyone involved.
The most immediate implication from that phone call is that Emily may have been a government agent or spy in the past, which raises an even bigger question: Is her double life at Fletcher’s Grove part of a mission, or a genuine attempt to leave a mysterious past behind? Although it’s not uncommon for government agencies to allow their covert operatives to retire and lead new lives, it doesn’t make sense in Emily’s case, given that she supposedly still has unfinished business with Chimera. A second, and more chilling possibility, thus, is that the person who made the call wasn’t actually a higher-up, but someone from Chimera itself. The hacker Emily is facing off against has already promised to track her down, which means that they might have already found her and are using Sam as part of a larger ploy.
Who Killed Glenn Shaw? How Does the Treasure Hunt End?
The two-part plot about Glenn Shaw’s death concludes by revealing the killer to be the assassin, Sawyer, who was impersonating Glenn’s old acquaintance, Harvey Saltzman. In some ways, this is the most predictable mystery arc of the three this season, and that’s mostly because of how Harvey doesn’t seem to fit into the grander plot from the beginning. While we know most of the other treasure hunt participants from the very beginning, Harvey introduces himself as a stranger, pulled into the mix solely because of the gift he received. However, with Noah Johnson being accounted for as the missing fifth participant, the theory that Sue’s book is the missing one is rendered nullified. In reality, Sawyer found that book in the diner’s trash can after killing Glenn and decided to join the game.
After being caught, Sawyer claims that his goal was never to kill Glenn, but to force him to reveal the whereabouts of the first edition of ‘A Christmas Carol.’ However, when Glenn simply laughed off the threats, Sawyer got filled with blind rage and stabbed him, before fleeing away. The real question, then, is about who employed Sawyer in the first place, and while he eventually coughs out an answer, Emily is much quicker at deducing it on her own. As it turns out, the real culprit here is none other than Talia, Glenn’s lawyer, who hoped to claim the ‘A Christmas Carol’ first edition for herself.
Emily figures this out by recalling that the very first envelope that Glenn left for the participants, containing the videotape where he announces the test, had a different seal than all of his other letters. Given that the first letter was kept with Talia, Emily figures that the lawyer must have opened the letter and seen its contents for herself, thus orchestrating a ploy to steal the book from right under everyone’s noses. While all of that fails, there is still one major flaw in Emily’s conduct throughout the investigation. In order to bring Sawyer down, she went ahead and beat him one-on-one, thus opening herself up to the possibility of being identified. There is no reason why Sawyer would keep the truth from the cops or his lawyers, which means that Emily might soon get caught up in a much larger web.
Will Emily and Sam End Up Together?
Although the finale ends with Sam confronting Emily, one mustn’t forget the scene right before this one, where the two end up passionately kissing and confessing their feelings. Regardless of what Emily’s response to Sam’s questions may be, the feelings are unlikely to dissipate anytime soon, which means that both of them are now left at an important juncture. For Sam to pour his entire heart out for Emily, only to learn that all of this might just be her made-up persona, can be understandably heartbreaking. However, the nuances of this dynamic are precisely where the hopes for a brighter future lie. Despite all her efforts to keep Sam at arm’s length, Emily ultimately ends up giving in to her feelings, and that is only possible because they are genuine.
While it may be true that Emily has been feeding the town lies to keep up a fake identity, everything she tells Sam in her most vulnerable moments is almost certainly true. This connects to when she told him why she opened a Christmas store in the first place, as the picture of her real family lines up with those claims. This also applies to all the times she opened up about the trauma she is still reeling from, and how it has never allowed her to have sincere relationships. While Sam may be angry at her for now, this is a crucial step in their relationship, one that was meant to manifest sooner rather than later. If Emily is able to come clean to Sam about who she is, there might be a real potential for the two of them to blossom as a pair.
Read More: Is Verity a True Story? Are Verity Crawford and Lowen Ashleigh Based on Real Writers?
You must be logged in to post a comment.