Mark gets an unexpected sight during the Christmas season; his daughter Carol Sloan (Stacy Van Dyke), who he hasn't spoken to in years. While he is thrilled to see his daughter, Steve is somewhat colder towards the event, having some bitter feelings of Carol marrying her husband Bruce Hilton despite the bad feelings he and Mark had about him.
Bruce is actually what brings Carol into town. As in, she has left his sorry ass, and she has stopped by to say hello to her family before she leaves. However, those plans are somewhat upheaved when the day after Bruce calls Carol warning her that people are going to kill him, he winds up dead in his motel. It's now up to Mark to find out just what it is Bruce was into and try to mend the broken bonds between them.
"Murder in the Family" displays symptoms of the following tropes:
- Apologetic Attacker: Andrea tells Carol that she doesn't really want to kill Carol, even saying that the Christmas parties at Wolpert Trucking will be worse off without her, but gets ready to pull the trigger anyway.
- Asshole Victim: Bruce abused his wife and was involved in a toxic waste dumping racket. Probably due for some coal in his stocking, but a bullet to the back of the head works just fine.
- Blackmail Backfire: Bruce was trying to get a bigger cut out of the waste dumping out of his cohorts. The closest he got was a bullet cutting through his skull and brain matter.
- Boom, Headshot!: How Bruce gets it.
- Chekhov's Gun: Carol mentions to Mark that she has missed doing crossword puzzles with him. She writes her hidden note to the gang on one.
- Christmas Episode: The episode takes place during the holidays, and ends with the cast joining Carol in singing "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas".
- Dude, Where's My Respect?: This is mostly what drew Andrea to the toxic waste racket. She got sick of Dan's lousy treatment and even worse pay, and decided she was going to get hers.
- Greed Makes You Dumb:Yes, Bruce, you go right ahead and try to squeeze your accomplices into a bigger share of the loot. That's gonna work out just fiiiiiiiine.
- Pillow Silencer: Vince and Malcolm used a pillow to cover up the shot used to bump off Bruce.
- Public Secret Message: When Andrea is ready to take Carol to the bank that Bruce left his recording of one of the waste payoffs, she makes it less suspicious by forcing Carol to write a message saying that she is leaving again. However, Carol uses the crossword as her paper, and points mark and the gang in Andrea's direction by spelling out her last name
- Special Guest: Stacy Van Dyke as Carol.
- Toxic, Inc.: Dan Wolpert was approached by a shady businessman to get in on a plot of illegally dumping toxic waste. Dan actually refused the offer. Andrea and some other truckers on the other hand...
