‘Elsbeth’ Exclusive Clip: Nathan Lane Spooks Carrie Preston With a Knife! (VIDEO)

Nathan Lane has a prop knife, and he’s not afraid to use it! The actor plays an uptight opera lover in the Season 2 premiere of Elsbeth, airing October 17 on CBS, and TV Insider is debuting a comedically tense scene featuring Lane and Carrie Preston in the episode. In it, Lane’s Phillip Cross pretends to be threatening with the retractable knife while he tries to prove he’s not involved in the murder being investigated.

Elsbeth Season 2 Episode 1 is titled “Subscription to Murder.” In it, a womanizing finance executive is found stabbed to death after a night at the opera, and Elsbeth (Preston) suspects an obsessed opera lover (Lane) was driven to murder because of a ringing cell phone. Elsewhere in the episode, Elsbeth, Captain Wagner (Wendell Pierce), and Kaya (Carra Patterson) must adjust to changes in the precinct as the consequences of Noonan’s (Fredric Lehne) Season 1 wrongdoing continue to loom.

Phillip, a lawyer like Elsbeth, can’t be easily duped into cooperating with the murder investigation. The clip above shows their friendly bond, but he quickly turns suspicious of her attempts to “clear his name.”

“I know it’s silly, but there’s a mark on the body that could’ve come from a retractable knife like this one,” Elsbeth says. “That’s absurd!” Phillip laughs.

“I know! That’s why I thought, well, let’s just ask him,” she replies. “Let’s just test the knife to prove that the victim’s DNA isn’t on it.”

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Phillip refuses to play along with her “clever” framing. “I’m already in the clear, I have no motive,” he says. “And how would it be possible for anyone to commit murder with a retractable KNIFE?!”

He holds the knife above his head as he pretends to lunge in for a kill, and then stabs himself with the fake, retractable blade to show how hard it would be to kill someone with plastic. It’s a “sentimental” prop that he won’t give up without a warrant, which he tells Elsbeth she “won’t be able to get considering I’m just someone who happened to be sitting behind someone hours before they died.”

“I see. Well played, counselor,” Elsbeth says, a tad defeated. “I’m afraid, dear Elsbeth, you’ve been listening to too much opera. Real life is a lot less dramatic than that.”

Her suspicions won’t be so easily erased. See Lane and The Nanny alum Daniel Davis in the Elsbeth Season 2 premiere next week.