NCIS: What Does Season 7 Hold?

If you're anything like me, your love of NCIS is wholly unparalleled by anything else on TV. Sure, I tune in for plenty of other procedural dramas to get my fix of suspense, and bust out laughing atNBC's various Thursday night offerings; however, something about NCIS (which stands for Navy Criminal Investigative Service, thought few people they encounter seem to know that) just gets me more excited than anything else. With NCIS fan fiction and NCIS message boards, I am certainly not the only person who is obsessed with the adventures of Leroy Jethro Gibbs and his crack investigative team. For those of you intrigued newbies (or more appropriately, "probies"), let me give you a little background to wet your whistle.

Leroy Jethro Gibbs, just Gibbs or Boss to his friends and coworkers, is the head of one of NCIS's best teams: Anthony "Tony" DiNozzo, the handsome, film obsessed playboy, Ziva David, the beautiful former Israeli spy with deadly abilities, Timothy McGee the computer genius turned famous author and excellent detective, AbbySciuto , the Gothic, caffeine-powered forensic specialist, and Donald "Ducky" Mallard, the British medical examiner with a penchant for chatting up his patients. This cast of characters can solve any crime, with any twist. Gibbs often follows his gut, to the annoyance of the current NCIS director, the FBI, the Navy, and several others; but in the end, he always seems to catch the right guy.

So what's going to happen next season? Well, if you're not caught up, consider this your spoiler warning. We last saw Ziva beaten and bloodied....somewhere? Since we haven't heard tell of sour contracts negotiations with stellar actress Cote de Pablo, I would assume she will be back, though maybe not in the first season. Tony it seems, was really starting to get that we think he's madly in love withZiva. His suspicion of Michael was a great role reversal last season, after he kept his relationship with "La Grenouille's" daughter from Ziva. The bloody conclusion to his suspicions coupled with Ziva's mysterious captor's can only provide good TV if she's coming back. Besides who would fill in for her? Nikki? That FBI lady? Some new girl? We hate those other people. We fans are desperate for ourZiva fix.

Another option is a family tie in. Every year, trouble finds a family tie of an NCIS team member or two, the most recent being Gibbs' father Jackson. We've also seen McGee's sister in a compromising position, and of course we all know that the infamous Ari wasZiva's brother, whom she killed. Abby's family situation has always been mysterious. She seems to have siblings, and her parents may or may not be dead? Gibbs certainly is a father figure to her. A reveal on that front would be excellent. Also, Tony is due for a family mystery. His distant, rich father might be running a smuggling ring perhaps, or maybe he has a sister who is a CIA spy a la Jennifer Garner.

Finally, two lingering mysteries are haunting me from season six. The first question is to Jimmy; he knew absolutely nothing about Agent Lee's activities? We often see our sweet Jimmy has a take charge, fierce side (example: how helpful he is when Tony has to be the boss). It's unlikely Lee will be addressed again, but I would love to find out that Jimmy's torrid affair was part of monitoring her. Also, more pressingly, we need to come back to the questions surrounding Vance. Why did that other man have eye surgery, and why could no record of his service be found. The mystery was left when Vance and Gibbs made a silent agreement that as long as Vance was honest about his intentions, Gibbs would respect him--or was it? It was after this meeting that Gibbs asked Ducky to do another autopsy on or mysterious dead Marine boxer. Could we be setting up for a big Vance reveal? I know I'll be watching.