We're barely into the second half of the season, but speculation over the finale of NCIS this May has already begun - in part thanks to previous season-ending shockers.

In the past two years, we've seen Director Jenny Shepard killed, Gibbs given a brand-new team, and Ziva left for dead (well, almost) in a far corner of the Middle East.

How can the current Season 7, perhaps the CBS show's best so far, live up to such drama? Executive producer Shane Brennan says we should already have some idea.

“The people who really watch the show, I can tell them right now that they have already seen the beginnings of the last episode,” he said in an interview with Fancast.

“We have already started the last episode. Let them puzzle over that.”

What do the NCIS writers have up their sleeves this year?

That Brennan planted the seeds of the season finale plot somewhere within the first 12 episodes should be no surprise, given his philosophy on mapping out story arcs.

“If you [as a producer] get nervous toward the end of the season, you’re not doing your job,” he says. “Really, you need to be planning it out earlier than that. Luckily, we’ve got a bunch of creative writers who sit around and dream this stuff up.”

Any thoughts on the NCIS finale? Does it have something to do with Gibbs' legal adversary, introduced in the January 5 episode and tied somehow to the Colonel he busted?

That would be our best guess for now, as those two seem like they're out to bring down Gibbs personally. We welcome your feedback on this and any alternate theories.

Steve Marsi is the Managing Editor of TV Fanatic. Follow him on Google+ or email him here.