- Title: The Mentalist – Ruby Slippers
- wiki: link
The CBI is called in to investigate 19 year-old (Nicholas R. Grava) locked in a car and burned to death outside a drag club. While talking to the young man’s friend (Candice Afia), the CBI learn the victim was bullied by a homophobic co-worker (Wilke Itzin) and his estranged father (William R. Moses) who was ashamed of having gay son.
While following a hunch Jane (Simon Baker) tracks down the drag queen (Carlton Wilborn) who was in the alley the night of the murder to find out why he lied in his official statement. Cho (Tim Kang) discovers the older man who took him in was a meth addict and sexual predator (Don McManus) who often beat him, eventually making the victim flee to a halfway house a week before his death.
Although the CBI has uncovered three prime suspects for the murder, all guilty of other crimes, they have no evidence on who actually burned the victim alive. And when the drag queen is unable to identify any of the suspects as the man she saw pouring gasoline on the car that night Jane knows exactly what happened that night to young Archie Bloom, and why.
A couple of late twists and no lack of suspects do a good job at hiding the truth of the crime until the last moment. Once revealed Lisbon (Robin Tunney) is forced to make a choice on how to proceed, but given the circumstances there’s really no choice at all.
