Season one ended on a sizable cliffhanger, as Sam pressed Emily about her dark past, and she closed down. Where do we find them this year?
SARAH: I think what’s kind of fun about this season is that they never quite shake the reality that there is this deep attraction that they feel toward one another — but they have this giant, impenetrable wall that’s keeping them from being able to move forward or act on it, because Sam will never stop wanting to know Emily’s secrets and Emily will never be comfortable sharing those secrets . . .
Speaking of those secrets and the discord they create, how do Emily and Sam go about bridging that gap . . . given that they still have to work together?
PETER: There is, like Sarah spoke about, this really strong attraction that is happening on two different levels. There’s the regular physical attraction, but there’s also the attraction of minds . . . the fact that this is what Sam does for a living, this is his calling, and he’s encountered someone who — even though she is not a detective, and really should not be on that side of the yellow tape — has such a knack for it and such a brain for it, I think they recognize that in each other and there’s an attraction there.
But, to try and hold that with this big, unanswerable, shrouded thing that he is not allowed to know really creates this obstacle in terms of trusting each other. So, they’re pulled apart with equal tension to how they’re pulled together — which is what makes it so much fun to exist in and play.
SARAH: And also, the reality is that both of them are like a dog with a bone when it comes to a mystery. They have to figure it out [laughs]. And now the biggest mystery for Sam is, “Who is Emily?” So, we’ll see him really wrestle with how far he can go to try to solve this mystery if she won’t be the one to let him into it. That creates a whole other level of secrecy happening between the two of them as they’re both ultimately striving for the same goals, but finding themselves at odds with one another.
Christmas and murder don’t make for the likeliest of genre mash-ups at first blush. That said, there is an inherent darkness to the holidays for so many people. Would you say Mistletoe Murders is engaging with that, to some degree?
SARAH: What makes people really gravitate toward the Christmas genre is the reality that there is brokenness, and why people love the Christmas genre so much is that you start in a place of conflict, you take a journey and then at the end there’s resolution . . . The murder mystery genre takes a similar kind of journey. You have a murder that happens, you take a journey and it’s solved by the end. Justice is dealt out. So, there’s this resolution in both of these genres that actually kind of play in parallel to one another and intertwine with one another, which is why I think the melding of both genres works so well.
PETER: I agree. And there’s something so wonderful about . . . Emily has built this life, she’s set up this Christmas store, she’s bubble-wrapped herself in the sort of warm and fuzzy and beautiful and wonderful things about Christmas. But the reality is, other things keep breaking in. It keeps getting more complex, and it’s a fight to be able to return to that place where things are good and simple and happy. I think that’s true to life too. You can have the best designs — but sometimes it takes a bit of a circuitous path to get there.
Mistletoe Murders, on STACK TV & On Demand
MEMORABLE ROLES:
A native of Stony Brook, New York, Sarah Drew is best known to TV fans for playing Dr. April Kepner on Grey’s Anatomy from 2009-2018. She’s also popped up in Everwood, Cruel Summer and Mad Men. Winnipeg’s own Peter Mooney, meanwhile, spent four seasons on CBC legal drama Burden of Truth opposite Kristin Kreuk as crusading attorney Billy Crawford. You’ve also seen him as a regular on Saving Hope and Rookie Blue.
CURRENT GIG:
Airing on W Network in Canada, this Hallmark series casts Drew as Emily Lane, owner of a small-town Christmas shop who must reluctantly put her secret, shadowy past to work unravelling the murders of friends and neighbours. Mooney plays local cop Sam Wilner, who’s drawn to Emily both professionally and romantically; alas, her many deceptions conspire to keep them from a happily ever after.