Considering how season six of NCIS ended, the seventh season can't come quickly enough for most fans.

In an interview with TV Guide Magazine, creator Shane Brennan focuses on a couple of major storylines and offers a few teases about what's ahead...

On the whereabouts of Ziva: We know that she’s gone off to finish the work that Rivkin started, which was to locate this training camp in North Africa. We saw her on the ship with her Israeli comrades, and then we see her captured at the very end. So we know that that mission didn’t end well for her.

Now, the mission itself may have succeeded, we don’t know any of that. What I can promise about the beginning of next season: We leave Ziva locked up in that room being interrogated, but the audience’s expectation of what they think they’re gonna see next will be totally turned on its head in the first few minutes of the first episode next season. It’ll be a shock to them. I can guarantee they will go, what just happened? It’s very surprising—it’s a great opening episode next season.

On Gibbs' reaction to Ziva: He doesn’t like the decision that he had to make. There’s hope for Gibbs that this is going to somehow be resolved.

When he goes to Vance’s office and says “I’ll let you know in a few months about who we’re going to replace her with,” he’s hoping that she’s gonna come back to him and say, "You know what, I screwed up, I made a bad decision—take me back." That’s what’s in his heart.

Matt Richenthal is the Editor in Chief of TV Fanatic. Follow him on Twitter and on Google+.