Mistletoe Murders Episodes 1 & 2

Class is back in session at Girls Gone Hallmark Summer School and next on the syllabus is a fresh new review of Mistletoe Murders Episodes 1 and 2. We’re so excited to finally dive into this Hallmark+ original mystery series - because nothing says summer break quite like a little festive murder. Grab your notebooks, sharpen your candy cane pens, and let’s unravel the clues.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
This is a Bramble Jam podcast. Welcome to Girls Gone Hallmark,

(00:23):
a Hallmark of You podcast. I'm Megan and I'm a
longtime Hallmark fan. I'm Wendy. I'm a former Hallmark hater.
Today we are starting the second semester of the Girls
Gone Hallmark Summer School series, and we are beginning our
reviews of Mistletone Murders, and we are starting with combining
episodes one in two Poison and a paratree Parts one
and two. A little more on that in a minute.

(00:45):
Hang out with us when the podcast is over. The
best place to find us first, it's probably Instagram, where
we are Girls Gone Homerk. Hey, we are on Facebook
in Facebook groups, in particular, if you are looking to
join a Hallmark friendly Facebook group with cool people who
like to talk Hallmark and they know their stuff over there. Yeah,

(01:07):
it's called Girls Gone Hallmark in Facebook groups. As mentioned,
just a quick schedule adjustment. We had initially planned to
review each episode of Mistletoe Murders separately, and then upon
watching them, we thought maybe that wasn't the best idea
because we realized I didn't know this ahead of time,
that each mystery spans two episodes yeah, I didn't know either,

(01:29):
and we thought we would just combine them and do
them kind of like a movie. So minor schedule adjustment. Yeah,
so this will only run for three weeks as opposed
to six weeks, right, so good episodes every other week. Oh,
is that what we're going to do? Oh? You want
to do them back to back? Yeah, I just figured
we would just drop them the first three weeks, the

(01:50):
first three Thursdays. Oh, interesting, okay, and then August we'll
just leave those Thursdays empty because you guys be kind
of scenes. August is busy. Well, it's busy, but we're
also preparing for the onslaught of Christmas content, so we're

(02:10):
going to take a little break. Great, let's start with
a synopsis. Christmas shop owner Emily Lane investigates a murder
at a tree farm. That's all I got. Missletow Murders
was created by Ken Cooperis, and he is credited with
writing the first two episodes of the series. He was

(02:31):
executive producer of the Mistletoe Murders podcast series, which the
TV was based on. He's also been a writer and
a producer on the Hallmark adjacent series Hudson and Rex
Hudson and Rex. There it Is Again. Grant and Harvey
directed the first two episodes of Mistletoe Murders for Hallmark.
Grant has also directed fourteen episodes of The Way Home.
His additional directing projects include Heartland and Orphan Black. The

(02:57):
One and Only. Sarah Drew plays Emily Lane, our shop
owner with a miss Siria's past. Sarah has fifty three
acting credits, including two hundred four episodes of Grey's Anatomy
as April Kepner. For Hallmarks, she has appeared in Branching
Out One Summer and Guiding Emily. Peter Mooney plays Detective
Sam Wilner. Peter must have big cop energy because among
his acting credits that was really Good Megan includes roles

(03:20):
like Ricky Blue and Burden of Truth. Sierra Marilyn Riley
plays teenager Violet Wilner. This was her very first acting
project and she has since appeared in the series Motorheads.
Kylie Evans plays town busybody Brook Carmichael. You might recognize
Kylie s Stephanie from the series Good Witch. Lara Amersay
plays June Hubble, murder suspect and Emily's best Sie. Lara

(03:43):
has had roles in Work and Moms, as well as
the Prime video series Cross David who Litt plays Ray,
the furniture sales person with a shady side hustle. David
has a deep resume. His longest running role was on
Stargate Atlantis, where he has appeared in ninety nine episodes.
Steve Lund plays Marcus Donovan. Steve was in all four
Hearts Around the Table movies and is appearing in season

(04:05):
three of Sullivan's Crossing. Mistletoe Murders is based on the
Audible original podcast by the same name. We are going
to take a quick break and we're gonna come right
back with our first impressions. Hey, Wendy, what is your

(04:28):
first impression of Mistletoe Murders? Quien in a pear Tree? Oh? Sorry,
this mystery did not come to play, and neither did
Emily Lane who My first impression is. I've heard the
term cozy mystery tossed around and I think Hallmark nailed
it here A great Can I tell you hold on
a second. I really want to make an edit. I
have to ask my seventeen year old how to exactly

(04:50):
do that, but I want to make an edit of
like Emily Lane to this song. Do you know what
I'm talking about? This? No? I did something bad by
Taylor Swift from their reputation. Oh, I think about while
I'm watching this is like Emily has this sort of
like baddie energy. Yes, and I'm loving it. I love

(05:15):
love love. Let's talk about Sarah Drew and the character
she plays Emily's. First of all, I'm all in on
Sarah Drew. It was really the movie one Summer that
we recently reviewed that like was the tipping point for me. Yeah,
she's so good in Guiding Emily though. She is very good.

(05:36):
You're right, she's very good in that movie. Quite frankly
as April Kaeperner. Like, she's good. I didn't watch Grays
oh know her as that character at all. She's a
good actor. I have a suggestion for you new TikTok fanatic.
Just search April Kaepner on TikTok and you'll get some
of her iconic Gray's anatomy. I mean, she has this

(05:59):
heartbreaker the storyline. She's so good. Oh I'm excited, I will.
But she's so good in this. She's so good in this.
The way she delivers dialogue is like how you and
I would talk to each other. I feel like there's
she's of course, she's like natural and warm, but she's
just a little bit sarcastic too. And the way it's

(06:22):
delivered is like a chef's kiss. So good. Yeah, here's
one thing I like about her. Look, we are familiar
with this setup, right, We've got the cop Sam and
then we've got the amateur sleuth. But Emily Lane is
not your average Hallmark heroine. Yes, year, we know she's
got some sort of mystery past. She clearly knows her stuff.

(06:46):
I mean, look the hidden briefcase moment with the passports,
her lock picking skills, the explosion. I love her, and
I love that her character's got a lot of depth.
She's not just like I'm a Christmas tree shop owner
who happens to be crime a Jason, and I'm going
to solve this crime because it involves my friends. She
has a reason. Yes, So my notes about Emily Lane

(07:10):
are that I think she's Hallmark's most intriguing lead. Like ever,
oh uh huh. When I was watching it, I was like, Okay,
she's giving me alias energy. Yeah, we're that you know, Like,
of course, she's not a spy. I don't think she's
a spy, but like the lead character in Alias was
a spy, and like it's that sort of kind of like,

(07:31):
I mean that briefcase with the multiple passports is giving
spy something. And what I also find super intriguing is
is she hiding in plain sight here? I'm a Christmas
shop owner? Yeah, Like, what's the backstory here? I love it?
I love it so much. I haven't my notes that

(07:51):
she's not just like a nosy amateur sleuth here, Like
she brings a skill that we're not fully aware of yet.
It's more Amy Winslow than Hannah Swinson. Yes, and I
love that. This is a good thing. Question are you

(08:12):
more anxious for the reveal of Emily's backstory or were
you more anxious for the Emily and the Amy and
Travis kiss. I'm more anxious to learn about Emily Lane's
backstory because and this is no shade to Mystery one
on one, I it was a series I really enjoyed.

(08:35):
But with that said, it was very Hallmark. Mistletoe Murders
to me feels elevated to a level of in quality terms,
similar to The Way Home. Production wise, director wise, like
that kind of level. And also I think that because

(08:55):
it's based off of a successful podcast, the storytelling was
already there. The storyteller is already there. But I also
I don't feel like they're trying to dumb anything down
for the audience. And sometimes I feel like Hallmark might
be a little watered down in terms, especially with the
mystery stuff. This felt different level to me. I think

(09:19):
one thing they do nicely is balancing the tone in
this movie, Like there is some sinister stuff, gambling, debts, blackmail,
shade business deals, and yet they balance it and they've
found the piece that makes it Hallmark. And I have
not listened to the podcast, but you have you know
your hot chocolate tastings. You have Emily runs this shop

(09:43):
that would go to business ten and a half months
out of the year, but still manages to be her
bread and butter somehow, And part of me is knowing
a little bit about her backstort, and like, is it
a front? Is it a sham? I don't think it is.
I think, you know, Hallmark is the only place where
this could work. But I think they are balancing the
mistletoe and the murder piece of it nicely. I agree,

(10:07):
and while watching this. You know, I'm not a huge
fan of Christmas, and I know it's called Missletoe Murders.
It feels to me like it's just operating like during
the holiday season. It's not like a part of this.
They're not bashing you over the head with it. Yes,
I it could stand alone, even if it removed the

(10:30):
holiday element from it. I agree. I imagine it's not
going to I imagine season two is going to pick
up during the holiday season sure as well. I really
enjoyed the story where we have all these clues the baseball,
Like all these clues start to reveal themselves, right, and

(10:51):
they're almost they're coming to Emily. I know she's out
in pursuit of information, but it's like these clues are
falling enter her lap a little bit like when she's
at the bank and she sees the baseball and then
she puts the name, the player names, the fake name together,
and when Lizzie comes in and Lizzie's looking for a
specific cookie and she's starting to put like the pieces

(11:12):
together of oh, Lizzie must have been with Marcus that night,
et cetera, et cetera. It's like enough to keep me
like interested, but I'm not like trying to piece it
together and put it together myself. I think a huge
piece of that is the voiceovers, because we don't have
to guess what she's thinking. She's like, oh, that means X,
Y and Z. I think one of our complaints about

(11:34):
mysteries is they give us so much information that sometimes
it is hard to follow. And because she is piecing
it together in her head and we hear that inner monologue,
it helps us keep up with what's going on. Yeah,
so you don't need the big like explanation at the
end of the episode. Yeah, yeah, I want to talk
about Violet the daughter Violet. Yeah, scene stiller for me.

(11:56):
I loved her she makes She has the line when
her dad comes into the Christmas shop and they're talking
about perhaps maybe a killer on the loose, and she says,
do I look like final girl material to you? I
just was like, I love the writing, I love this actor.
I can't believe this is like her first project. That
thought she was really good. She vibes nicely with the

(12:20):
guy that plays her dad, and she's a not She
doesn't feel the role of best friend and like obviously
Emily has like the best friend who gets in trouble
in this episode. She doesn't get in trouble but is
suspected in this episode. But she's you know, the sounding
board at work, yep, and it just works. Yeah, she

(12:42):
uses the line resting cop face great, it's great. I
love it, speaking of supporting character. Is a big fan
of Detective Sam. I like his dry wit, but it's
also balanced by the fact that he's really warm with
his daughter and very actively participating and trying to make
it so that like their life has changed, but her

(13:02):
life doesn't have to. And then takes the chance to
listen to her when she's like, look, we can adapt,
we don't need our life doesn't need to be a
carbon copy of what it was before, and he hears
her and adapts to what she needs. And obviously you
see him kind of warming to Emily and the skills
that she brings, like he's mildly annoyed that she's running

(13:24):
her own investigation, as he should be, quite frankly, but acknowledges,
you know, the help that she's offering kind of softens
towards her. Obviously we see where this is headed. I'm
really enjoying Detective Sam. I agree with you he's attractive.
I don't love the trope of I'm annoyed at this

(13:51):
amateur sluice story. And maybe it's just because we've watched
a lot of mysteries. Yeah, but she also stops in
and she's like, give me this information. He's like, get
the heck. Yeah here, No, I agree. I love when
he clocks he and he's like, not all investigations are
an aga, agatha, christie, you know, story or whatever. Yeah,

(14:12):
except bro, you're living in one. Yeah, exactly exactly. My
final like is and we talked about at the top
this two episode arc. Very smart move, yes, so smart.
I love it, and it ties in with my final link.
The final scene we get that kind of wraps up

(14:32):
all of these storylines. It's told without dialogue. Lizzie's telling
Tren the truth. We see Gordon waking up in the hospital,
Sam and Violet doing their career. Like we're wrapping up
all these storylines. Emily and June are at the bar,
Emily exchanged gifts with Ray. Uh you know, it gives
us like closure, but then opens the door to the

(14:52):
next thing. Yeah, I'm curious to see because I have
not watched episode three yet. Do we get new characters
introduced at all, we would have to because I can't
imagine that to the d this pool of people are
not gonna have another murder. Yeah, I would hope not. So. Yeah,
I imagine we'll still see June. Right. Our best friend

(15:16):
Tom Kavanaugh joins the cast in season two. I think, oh,
in season two? Is that what it is? I think?
So okay? Interesting, that feels like heavyweight. Yeah, who has
a lot of experience. We didn't talk about it, but
the character of Ray and I put this on our
Instagram stories. Yeah, there are a few of you who

(15:38):
knew what I was referencing. But is he not Jonesy
from Beverly Hills nine. As soon as you said it.
As soon as you said it, I was like, shady side, hushole,
good guy, maybe doing some not so good things. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
I loved it. I loved it too. I loved it.
I really like him. Let's talk, let's talk wishes. I

(16:03):
are very few. Yeah, me too. My first one is
it's kind of a yes I do, but no, I don't.
I want more information about Emily's backstory, But then again
I don't. I'm like, give it to me. Just in breadcrumbs.
It makes it more enjoyable that way. So yeah, I
mean that final scene in the first episode where they

(16:26):
show the flashback to her all in black and the
explosion behind her, Like, that's great, that's super interesting. It
was the end of the episode two when she like
pulls out that, Yeah, the gift from Jonesy it's verg gun, right,
I know that's what it's my wishes too, Like what
is it? Is it a gun? Is it a burner phone?
I don't know? Yeah, what is it? I don't know.

(16:47):
I'm dying to know, but I feel like a gun's
too obvious and what could it be? I don't know.
But yeah, I'm really enjoying her backstory. I'm enjoying the
slow reveal. Another thing I want more of. I want
more Brooke and more Sue. I'll be shocked if we
don't find Brooke Carmichael at the center of one of

(17:08):
these mysteries this season. She plays the perfect little town
busy by. We didn't really get enough of her in
my opinion, in these first two episodes, but they do
set her up nicely to be kind of getting in
the middle of something sticky coming up. I thought so too,
so I also like Sue, you know, the diner owner.

(17:29):
I think she could be involved in a bigger way
as well. I like her. She's real funny, she's real dry.
So here's the thing that we see in a lot
of mysteries, and that is that the murder is someone
who often we don't know a lot about. Not always
the case, but sometimes they'll introduce this character and then
we won't see them or they'll be like really peripheral,

(17:50):
and so we don't suspect them. And they did that
in this case, and it's Rowan, And I felt sometimes
I find like it's maybe maybe too easy, Like it
felt a little bit like he came out of nowhere,
Like I did feel like he was suspicious from the moment. Yeah,
he shines her in the woods. Yeah, but we don't

(18:11):
get enough about him until we, you know, discover that
he's sleeping in the loft and all of that. So
you just came out of nowhere. Do you wish it
was somebody more obvious, maybe somebody who is like a
bigger player in the maybe in the story. Yeah, yeah,
I hear you, I hear you. That's it. Well, let's talk.

(18:32):
Did you see that moment I have to okay, And
they're not typical. Did you see that? They were just
stand out moments. Yeah. Same. The first one is when
Emily is pressing Anna the daughter about your dad is
tech challenge. He wouldn't know how to send an anonymous

(18:55):
and it's a really it's an acting choice that at
Sarah Drew makes like she's asking her a question, and
then she goes like this with her eyes, like and
you guys obviously were on a like an audio podcast
that I just did. But her I said, go ahead
answer me. You don't have any answer. I just thought

(19:17):
it was a really good, good scene. What do you
have to say to that? Yeah, it was just so good.
She just like it's almost like when you like make
oh my dams are so long, when you like make
a person flinch, like, yeah, you know what I mean.
It just it was really good. It was really good.
The other scene has to do also with Emily, and

(19:37):
it's when she's confronted with Rowan up in the barn
rafters and Rowan says, you shouldn't have come up here,
and she Emily looks possessed to me in this moment,
and she's like, he says, you shouldn't be here, and
she says I should say the same thing to you,
and she like goes for him, and then that's when

(19:57):
she crashes through the rafters. I was like, what is happening?
I need to know the backstory of this baddie. Yeah,
that's great, because what's funny is that? See? To me,
the remarkable theme to me was the fall was so good.
It was so well executed, the way she hits the
ground and comes out of that. But you're right, it's
like we're starting to get a hint of who she

(20:18):
is and what she's capable of, but she's interrupted by
the floor giving away. That's great. Yeah, you know, like you,
there's not a lot of real digit see that moments
for me. But I would like to say one thing
I noticed. I found the inside of Ray's office to
be very incongruous with the outside. Like his office is
very nice, it's well appointed, it's clean, everything's organized. The

(20:38):
front of his building is like dilapidated and falling down.
You know, this discount furniture is kind of like a
front for whatever other shady dealings he's got going on.
I just found the two to be an interesting contrast
to each other? Interesting? Is he running guns through his business?
Is that what's happening? Guns and passports? And I don't know.

(20:59):
I don't know because to me, I'm like, he's kind
of like the bad guy with a heart of goal. Yeah.
Like when he talks to Emily and he's like, how
did you know what I was into? And she says
game recognizes game and he goes, I don't know what
that means, but I'll take it like he just he
doesn't give me like sinister, you need to be afraid
of me bad guy vibes. I'm afraid of Emily. Yeah,

(21:19):
that's who I'm afraid of. Yeah, I'm like, please, don't
be like a terrible bad person that I can't. You
know that show you were oh uh huh, Joe Goldberg
is a murderer, but you're like, I'm enamored with Joe
the murderer because he's so charming. Yes, I'm like, is
that what's going to happen with Emily here? Or is
she going to be like a Robin Hood situation? I

(21:43):
don't know. Hey, what did you rate this first two episodes?
I gave it four point seven five stars. I gave
it five stars. Acknowledging that my patients for Emily's backstory
and the Emily and Sam Slowburn might run out, but
evaluating the too in a vacuum, thought it was great,

(22:04):
so good. I haven't told my husband. I was like
numerous times, I go, this is really good. This is
really really good. Uh huh, he won't watch it. No,
my husband wasn't interested in watching it either, but I
was like, I think you'd like it. Hey, thank you
for listening to this episode of Girls Gone Hallmark. We'll
be back next week with our reviews of Mistletone Murders
episodes three and four. We'll see you next time. Goodbye, bye.

(22:39):
All right friends, before we go, just a quick heads up,
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