The holiday season wouldn’t be the same without our Queen of Christmas, Emily Lane. Thankfully, Mistletoe Murders is back for Season 3, bringing with it a brand-new mystery that Emily simply can’t resist. After all, that girl loves a good murder mystery almost as much as she loves Christmas.
And she’s back in action!
While everyone in town suspects Helen (portrayed by Good Witch star Catherine Bell), the holiday wreath maker of killing her third husband, Richard—which earned her the impressive nickname of the “grim wreather”—Emily isn’t so sure that she’s capable. After all, she knows all too well that some people have good reasons for hiding their past, and without a second chance and the benefit of the doubt, she would’ve ended up just like Helen.
Helen is accused of murdering Richard, who died while putting up Christmas lights. Her stepdaughter, Ruth, is convinced Helen had something to do with it, as is her stepson from a former marriage, Wes, who is not shy about telling everyone in town what he thinks of Helen—even if it does technically fall into defamation.
Helen, of course, carries a burden of guilt, as she tells Emily that she feels responsible for all the deaths, but not in the way you think. She wishes she did more to ensure they didn’t meet their own demise, and while she puts on a convincing show, there’s one thing working against her—how did Richard die holding her glove that she used to go cut the bushes mere moments before? And who did Richard see on the rooftop just before he was killed?
There’s also the fact that Sam responds to a burglary in progress, called in by the neighbor, and finds Helen coming out of the house, with her hands in the air. Was she caught red-handed? Surely, there’s probably a good and logical explanation that we’ll get when the second episode airs.
For mystery’s sake, I hope it isn’t Helen, since that seems too easy. But Albert, the neighbor who despised Richard, definitely has motive. Not only has he been snooping around, hoping to find out what the police know, but he also made it extremely clear that he wasn’t a fan of Richard’s extravagant and bright Christmas decor.
Is it possible that this was a crime driven by too much holiday spirit?
Emily and Sam investigate a wreathmaker accused of killing her husbands. Violet and June nominate Emily for town Cheerman in hopes of convincing her to stay in Fletcher’s Grove. Photo: Sarah Drew, Catherine Bell Credit: ©2026 Hallmark Media/Photographer: Peter Stranks
While this latest mystery takes over Fletcher’s Grove, it’s not the storyline fans have been most eager to see unfold. That honor belongs to Emily’s unexpected reunion with her ex, Aaron, who showed up at her doorstep in the final moments of Season 2, leaving viewers on the edge of their seats with one heck of a cliffhanger.
There’s a lot at stake here, but unfortunately, the show never quite makes the danger feel as urgent or consequential as it should.
Aaron reveals that when Emily began looking into Chimera, she left a trail of digital breadcrumbs leading him right to her. He further informs her that Chimera has been compromised, as someone else is using the name. “They are responsible for the warehouse,” he explains, as he underscores that they are being “targeted” one by one.
Some of their teammates—Shawn and Evelyn—are dead, a fact Emily confirms to be true, causing more confusion as to whether or not Aaron is actually telling the truth. After all, he did try to kill her once before, and now he knows he didn’t succeed.
A little refresher:
Chimera is a hacking collective that Emily (Grace at the time) and her then-boyfriend, Aaron, became involved with, thinking they were working for the greater good and using cybercrime to target wealthy and corrupt individuals to “steal” their money and give it to worthwhile causes. The power got to Aaron’s head, and Grace found evidence linking him to a terrorist group. When the feds raided the Chimera operations, Aaron escaped while Grace cooperated and began working in intelligence to track Aaron and the organization.
Emily and her team walked into a trap during a warehouse raid, compromising the operation, which is why she disappeared under a new identity. They suspected Aaron, who is now telling Emily it wasn’t him behind the warehouse attack, but someone else who has taken control of Chimera.
Methinks Aaron is telling the truth. Considering Aaron could’ve killed Emily at any point if he wanted to, his visit was merely a “friendly” warning.
And if he was able to find her, the new Chimera surely knows that she’s alive, and it’s not only put her in danger, but Sam and Violet as well.
Emily is understandably shaken up by the visit, as she tells Sam everything, and then sets off to go warn the people she loves, telling him she won’t be the reason more people die because of this thing she created.
The honesty between them is refreshing, as is Sam’s support. It’s clear she cares about him a lot, as she doesn’t want him to get mixed up in all of this, but he’s also a cop, so supporting her already blurs the lines.
Months pass before Emily and Sam are reunited again.
But sadly, Emily’s return to Fletcher Grove doesn’t reveal much about her time away. She says her return to town is temporary, just for the holidays, and admits finding people who are off the grid without resources is proving to be tricky, but that’s really all we get.
The Chimera situation is largely ignored, as Emily gets pulled into the Helen mystery, with only some flashbacks to Grace’s training days, which I imagine will be part of a larger storyline as the season unfolds.
Emily has a past, and the episode makes that abundantly clear, particularly through her connection with Helen, her understanding of what she’s going through and her desire to help. But that past feels so far removed from the Emily we’ve come to know. Without seeing how she’s processing everything in real time, the show loses some of the urgency surrounding her situation. Instead, the focus shifts almost immediately to the town’s Christmas festivities upon her return, including her friends entering her into the Christmas Cheerman competition against Brooke. And while those moments bring the familiar holiday charm we’ve come to love, they also undercut the very real danger Emily is facing, making it harder for viewers to feel the tension and fear that should be hanging over her every move.
I’m a huge fan of Mistletoe Murders, but at times, it felt like the show was torn between being a cozy Christmas series with a side of murder mystery and embracing a darker, more twisted storyline that would force Emily to confront her past rather than retreat into the comfort of eggnog and twinkling lights. The audience wants the show to go there fully.
If Chimera really is that dangerous—we should all be a little more concerned, especially since there’s no telling who has taken over the agency. They could be in town already.
What did you think of the Misteltoe Murders Season 3 premiere?