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Sarah Drew is explaining why season 3 of Mistletoe Murders looks a little different after a time jump — and more changes.
During the Thursday, November 5, premiere, local Christmas shop owner Emily (Drew) left the town of Fletcher’s Grove for close to a year after her former boyfriend, Aaron (Aaron Ashmore), returned back into her life in the season 2 finale.
“We need a time jump because every season takes place at Christmas. But we can’t leave everybody hanging so we have to jump off immediately where we left off,” Drew, 46, exclusively told Us. “The first minutes of the premiere include a great scene with Aaron — and then a great scene with Sam right after that launches us into this situation.”
Emily was in the thick of it when it came to her blossoming romance with Sam (Peter Mooney), which was put on pause.
“Also it has to be a time jump because Emily has to leave town to go take care of this thing that’s cropped up from her past that she feels responsible for,” Drew continued. “So she’s not around. Then she does come back — when we’re back in all the Christmas feels — and figuring it all out.”
Despite this setting up another romantic roadblock for Emily and Detective Sam, Drew urged Us not to lose hope, adding, “Don’t ever give up hope. What I love about this season is that we go a lot deeper with their relationships. The stakes are even higher and it’s more layered.”
She continued: “Last season was more about will she let him in? Will there ever be honesty between them? And that’s the only way for them to move forward. It was about will they and this season is about how will they.”
Drew promised more surprises along the way.
“The roadblocks are even bigger and scarier and more intense and much more personal and much more close to home,” she shared. “So it becomes this thing where their hearts are in it but how do they make it work?”
Based on the Audible series of the same name by Ken Cuperus, Mistletoe Murders follows a woman who moves to a small town in Upstate New York and buys a year-round Christmas shop. After a series of murders strike the town, Emily begins investigating the crimes with Sam.
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Mistletoe Murders is one of Drew’s many projects in addition to Jimmy and working on another movie script after the success of A Cowboy Christmas Romance and A Carpenter Christmas Romance. While speaking to Us, Drew reflected on how her faith has aided her professionally.
“For me personally, I would not survive this career without my grounded and rootedness in my faith. This industry loves to tell you who you are and loves to tell you whether you’re valuable or not or how valuable you are or not,” she shared. “You’re really just swept on the whims of popularity at any given moment.”
Drew concluded: “I know that at the core of who I am, I belong and I’m beloved. I am a child of God, first and foremost. Nothing that happens in this industry can shake that and make me wonder if I have value or not because I know fundamentally. So that, for me, is the greatest gift that my faith has given me in trying to kind of weather the waves of this industry.”
Mistletoe Murders airs on the Hallmark Channel Thursdays at 8 p.m. ET. Jimmy is out in theaters now.
