TV’s most dangerously charming mystery couple is back,and things are about to get very messy under the mistletoe.
As part of Hallmark Channel’s annual Countdown to Christmas lineup, Mistletoe Murders has officially returned for Season 3. Based on Ken Cuperus’ hit Audible Original, the series follows Emily Lane (Sarah Drew), the guarded owner of Fletcher’s Grove holiday shop “Under the Mistletoe,” and local detective Sam Wilner (Peter Mooney) as they balance sleuthing with an irresistible slow-burn romance.
When fans last left Fletcher’s Grove, Emily and Sam finally shared a tender, romantic breakthrough in the town gazebo—only for Emily’s past to knock right on her front door in the form of Aaron (Aaron Ashmore).
“Season 3 is so fun,” Drew told Celeb Secrets. “We end Season 2 on a giant cliffhanger where everything seems wonderful and happy, and she’s letting Sam in, and they have a big romantic moment in the gazebo. And she’s thinking,‘This is gonna be my new life. I’m gonna be okay.’ And then her past literally walks into her front door in the form of Aaron. And so we pick up right where we left off with Aaron blowing up her life again.”
In the Season 3 premiere, that collision forces Emily to make an agonizing choice: running away for eleven months to keep Sam safe from the deadly operatives hunting her. But when she steps back into town, their connection hasn’t faded.
“This time, though, Emily is able to let Sam into a lot of it,” Drew revealed. “And actually, there is one big secret that she’s keeping from him, but for the most part, he’s coming alongside of her in the midst of it as opposed to them just missing each other.”
“What’s the secret? I won’t tell him!” Mooney quipped back. “I know Sam, but I won’t tell him. Is it spoiler alert? … I really have a firewall.”
Beyond the romance, Season 3 features star-studded guest appearances — including Catherine Bell (Good Witch) as suspected wreathmaker Helen, Aaron Ashmore, and Holly Robinson Peete. For Mooney, having the characters evolve alongside the weekly procedural cases is what sets the series apart.
“It’s honestly my favorite thing about doing this show,” Mooney explained. “Sometimes with a show that has a procedural engine or a mystery engine, part of what’s attractive about the show is that the characters stay the same and the mysteries just kind of swap in and out. But this show does a really deft juggling act in having the characters grow and change and develop and come closer and learn more about each other, while still pushing through these mysteries every week.”
Drew added that audiences will also see a much deeper look into Emily’s former life as Grace through revealing flashbacks:
“We get to see more flashbacks, but we get to see more of the development between Emily, when she was Grace, and Aaron in the past. And we kinda get to see some very fun and sparkly ways that he’s sort of kept a hold on her in some ways. And that informs who she is with Sam, and how she’s able to let her guard down, or if she’s able to let her guard down because she’s been burned before.”
It’s not just Emily and Sam feeling the growing pains this season. Sam’s daughter, Violet (Sierra Marilyn Riley), steps into center stage with an arc that creates brand-new friction for both leads.
“There’s a lot of fun development with Violet — her real name is Sierra, who we love very much, who plays Sam’s daughter,” Drew shared. “She gets to have some kind of juicier stuff this year, which is really, really fun, which also causes some tension between the two of you [Sam and Violet], and between me and Violet in a way that we’ve never had tension before.”
When asked about the most heartfelt moments of the season, Drew immediately highlighted an emotional turning point with Riley:
“I have a specific scene with Violet that’s one of my top three of all three seasons of all scenes. It was a very special, very vulnerable [moment], and Sierra’s so incredible. She’s so good, and we just locked in with each other and had this very tender moment that was complicated but full of love for each other, but also demanding truth. I think people are gonna really like that.”
Mooney agreed that Fletcher’s Grove hits hardest in its quiet personal beats: “There are really moving personal stories between Sam and Emily, between Emily and Aaron, between Sam and Violet. Now that we’re three seasons in, they’re just getting richer and deeper and more meaningful.”
As for what fans can expect down the stretch? Hold onto your seats. Both Drew and Mooney teased that Episodes 5 and 6 take viewers on an unforgettable ride, complete with real-life weather chaos behind the camera.
“For me, the ending of this season is pretty wild, and it was pretty wild to film it,” Mooney revealed. “The weather was wild. The twist at the end of Season 3 is pretty huge, and I’m really excited for people to see that, ’cause it was quite a doozy to film.”
“Episodes five and six, the last two — it’s like you’re on a train and you don’t wanna get off because you can’t wait to see what’s happening,” Drew teased. “When we got the scripts, I had it on my chair while we were shooting, and they kept calling me to set. And I was like, ‘I can’t go to set, I gotta find out what happens!’ That final moment is crazy. And we did get stopped in the middle of shooting that big, final jaw-dropping scene. For an hour and a half we had to shelter in place because of a lightning storm, and then had to jump right back into it at 2:30 in the morning, which was wild.”
And if Hallmark gives the green light for a Season 4? The co-stars already have a pitch ready for creator Ken Cuperus:
“My dream would be to take a field trip so that we do an episode not in Fletcher’s Grove,” Drew pitched. “Where we’re in a castle somewhere and somebody dies!”
“In Ireland!” Mooney suggested.
“Or Hawaii! Somewhere warm. Why not?” Drew laughed.
New episodes of Mistletoe Murders air every Thursday at 8:00 p.m. ET/PT on Hallmark Channel and is available to stream the next day on Hallmark+. For more on Mistletoe Murders, make sure to watch our full interview with Sarah and Peter below, and don’t forget to let us know if you’re loving the new season by either leaving a reaction at the bottom of the post or by sliding into our DMs on Instagram at @celebsecrets.
For more coverage from Hallmark’s Countdown to Christmas 2026, click here.
