Shane Brennan is a busy man.

He created NCIS: Los Angeles. He’s behind its potential spinoff, Red. And he’s also developed the new series coming in June to TNT, King & Maxwell.

But Brennan still found time to jump on the phone with TV Fanatic this week and talk about his myriad of projects.

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TV Fanatic: Let’s start with King & Maxwell. What are the different challenges in creating the show based on the David Baldacci books? An NCIS spinoff is one thing but this is coming from a different – and very popular – source.
Shane Brennan: David Baldacci has sold over 130 million books around the world, and a whole bunch of those are based on King & Maxwell. It would be pretty crazy of me to adapt those books and give my particular take on King & Maxwell. It has to be David’s take so the audience will recognize it. Otherwise, the audience who love the characters in the novels will be critical of the characters on the screen. It’s very challenging.

Baldacci actually has said so publicly [that] we have surpassed his great hope that these characters would translate to the screen, and you can thank Rebecca [Romijn] and Jon [Tenney] for that. They are astonishing as King & Maxwell.

TVF: Let’s move over to NCIS: Los Angeles, which of course has another couple that everyone’s rooting for to get together, the whole Kensi-Deeks relationship. Can you talk a little about what’s coming for them in the finale.
SB: It is one of the powerful season finales we’ve done because of what’s at stake. Anyone who’s watched the season knows that there are a bunch of nuclear weapons about to be sold on to the market and all that comes to a head in the finale…because there’s so much jeopardy because the stakes are so much higher, you find characters doing things that they wouldn’t normally do. Under that pressure, we certainly see hints of something unexpected, something that the audience has perhaps wanted to see but it comes in a surprising way. It provides a moment…let me say, a bittersweetness to the Kensi-Deeks relationship in this last episode of the season.

TVF: In “Raven & The Swans,” Callen questioned Hetty’s recruiting tactics and her background, which we got a really nice back story there. Is that just filling in gaps there? Or is that something that’s going to come to light in these next episodes?
SB: That’s almost, in fact, setting up something for next season. This season we focused a lot of our storytelling Sam revealing the other side of Sam, the fact that he’s married to a woman who turns out to be a former CIA agent, who has been reactivated. We focused on that, but we haven’t done much on the Callen story. We touched on various parts of the Hetty-Callen backstory. Certainly in “Raven & The Swans,” we touched on that some more.

It is, in fact, though, setting up what would be a pretty astonishing season in season five, where we focus on Callen. We restart his journey of discovery, and it clearly involves Hetty, and it will take us into some very surprising places next season.

TVF: How are Callen and Sam? They seem to be in a good place just partnership-wise. Is there conflict between them in these next episodes?
SB: Well, one of the interesting things that happens in the finale is that, because of the circumstance of the episode, all of the partnerships are swapped around. We’ve done this once or twice before over the last four seasons, and there’s always been a certain amount of fun. It takes on much more of a dangerous element in this season finale with these changes.

We have Deeks and Sam partner up. These are two characters when we put them together there was always friction. All that’s turned on its head because of the circumstances that they find themselves in…this episode goes to a very dark place. Particularly, the last two scenes, it’s quite grueling to watch. The stakes are very high because we’re talking about these new weapons [and] as a result, what we have is probably the most powerful last two scenes of NCIS: LA that we’ve ever done.

When I was watching the cut [of the episode], I had to look away. I won’t tell you what I was looking away from, but it will take you to perhaps, the reality of what can happen to these undercover agents when things don’t go quite the way they were planned.

TVF: Assuming the Red spinoff goes forward, how will it be different from the other shows in the franchise?
SB: I didn’t want to do NCIS: New York. To me, and I’ve worked on a lot of different procedurals over the years, both in this country and in Australia. And the thing that the audience always ultimately hankers for is, so what do they do when they go home? That’s what Red is. You get to see them at home. You get to see them in the pressure cooker of working and living together, and this has a different pace and feeling than the other two. It will be a different show, but within the NCIS franchise, but in the NCIS world. This thing goes about solving crimes in their own particular way, and that particular style they have is based on them having been forced to work and live together.

So the lines between their personal lives and their work lives, they’re not blurred, they’re just totally intermingled so they can be on their way to the laundry, and have to stop and track down a suspect. They can wake up in the morning, argue over putting the strap on their guns and go to a crime scene, and when there’s a crime scene argue over who’s going to do the dishes when they get back, and who was snoring, and all those sorts of issues that we have when we get into the personal lives of people. To me, it seemed to be a great opportunity to see what the other side of the coin looks like.

NCIS: Los Angeles airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. on CBS. King & Maxwell premieres June 10th at 10 p.m. on TNT. We’ll find out about Red next week when CBS announces its fall programming slate.

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I need some NCIS: LA scoop on Kensi and Deeks. Will the box return? — Chelsea
ADAM: Sort of. Executive producer Shane Brennan says that what the box symbolizes will be explored. “If you look at the box as a ratcheting up of their personal relationship, you will not be disappointed,” Brennan says. “There is a very poignant moment between Kensi and Deeks in the finale that will surprise everyone.” How poignant, you ask? Let’s just say that people do crazy things when they’re about to die.

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Question: What does NCIS: LA have in store for Nell and Eric? —Sophiaq
Ausiello: For the remainder of this season? Not much. For next season? At least one juicy episode. “We’re actually [about to] shoot one episode [for Season 5] that’s apparently an Eric-Nell episode,” Barrett Foa shares. “We haven’t really checked in with them after the big Christmas under the mistletoe [incident] — there hasn’t been a ton of stuff with the two of us — and I think it’s time to get that back, because I figure fans are really ready for that.”

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Tonight at 9/8c, CBS’ NCIS: Los Angeles launches into the final three episodes of Season 4, opening with an hour that pits Callen against Hetty, then lightening things up by ruffling Kensi’s fathers, and closing the season with events that Shane Brennan can’t use the word “dark” often enough to describe. Here, the showrunner previews all that’s to come.

TVLINE | Do these next couple of episodes feed the finale, or is the finale almost standalone?
Tensions are mounting and things are happening that ultimately will lead to the most powerful finale episode we’ve done — and we’ve done some pretty powerful ones, so that’s saying something — and the darkest by a long, long way. It really ends in a scary place. It is quite dark.

TVLINE | But first things first: Talk about this week’s episode, “Raven & the Swans,” and how guest star Andrea Roth (Rescue Me) fits in.
We will see a little bit of Hetty that we hinted at in the past, and [Andrea’s character] is a part of that past. What we have in this episode is something we haven’t seen before. We know that Callen and Hetty have quite an affinity for each other, that they have a special relationship based on the fact that Hetty was responsible for looking after Callen as a child, putting him into foster homes and trying to shape him. What this episode reveals is another part of that history, but it’s more what Callen learns about Hetty that is the revelation. In fact, there is a moment between Callen and Hetty that is explosive. It’s angry. We haven’t seen them like this before. Callen quite literally attacks her. It is quite a confrontational scene that emotionally impacts both of them.

TVLINE | And next week, in the episode “Parley” — is that Jeananne Goossen (CSI: NY) playing Deeks’ “source”?
She’s playing the very seductive Monica, yes. This is an episode that puts Deeks undercover with a beautiful woman, and Kensi would never be jealous of something like that, ever. Not gonna happen. ParleyBut of course there is some jealousy, and of course Deeks — being the “Method” undercover agent that he is — tries to play it as real as possible. It puts pressure on their relationship and at the same time it lights the fuse for the finale, with the return of Sidorov (played by Sons of Anarchy’s Timothy V. Murphy).

And just to go back to “Raven & the Swan”: People who love the Kensi/Deeks relationship really shouldn’t miss that one. While it very much is Hetty and Callen, there is an absolutely hilarious scene with Kensi and Deeks at the center of it. In fact, Kensi and Deeks fans have a bit of a three-parter coming up, in the sense that there’s a lot of fun in “Raven & the Swan,” there’s a moment of potential jealousy with Deeks undercover with Monica, and in the finale is a moment that fans cannot miss, something we’ve been toying with and teasing for three seasons. It’s a moment people will want to DVR and rewatch very closely.

TVLINE | Well speaking of the season finale, “Descent,” Barrett Foa told us it features a veritable League of Supervillains.
It is exactly that. In addition to Sidorov, The Chameleon (Highlander‘s Christopher Lambert) makes a very surprising return, having last been seen happily getting into a car with the Iranians that he had betrayed — and let’s just say that he’s not the man he used to be. The episode is a high-stakes conclusion of the missing nukes [storyline], and it plays out around the world. The first 30 seconds should not be missed. It’s pretty astonishing what happens, and from there it ramps up even more.

TVLINE | And Hetty shuffles partners again?
She does, and anytime you see Deeks and Sam working together, you know there’s going to be friction. Ultimately this episode plays out in a way that puts these two together in a life-threatening situation that tests their trust. And as I’ve said, it leads to this very, very dark — and I mean dark — conclusion, with Deeks and Sam at the center of it. We also see the return of Sam’s wife Michelle and all the issues that taunted Sam regarding her working undercover. The jeopardy that one of the characters is put into springs directly from that.

TVLINE | So, we should watch for potential fatalities?
There are potentially two, and they’re not subsidiary characters. It really is quite a stunning end to a stunning episode that starts from a very powerful place. Things kind of unravel for the team, because the best plaid plans sometimes don’t go so well. And when you’re dealing with this kind of international terrorism, sometimes you end up making unlikely alliances!

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CALLEN AND KENSI HEAD OVERSEAS AND SAM AND HIS WIFE GO UNDERCOVER WHEN AN EXPLOSION REIGNITES THE SEARCH FOR STOLEN NUCLEAR WEAPONS, ON THE FOURTH SEASON FINALE OF “NCIS: LOS ANGELES,” TUESDAY, MAY 14

Guest Stars Include Aunjanue Ellis as Michelle Hanna, Christopher Lambert as Marcel Janvier and Timothy V. Murphy as Isaak Sidorov

“Descent” – An explosion in the desert rekindles the search for stolen nuclear weapons and prompts Hetty to shuffle the NCIS: LA partnerships, sending Callen and Kensi overseas and Sam and Deeks teamed up stateside, on the fourth season finale of NCIS: LOS ANGELES, Tuesday, May 14 (9:00-10:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network. Guest stars include Aunjanue Ellis as Michelle Hanna, Christopher Lambert as Marcel Janvier and Timothy V. Murphy as Isaak Sidorov.

CHEAT TWEET: It’s the #NCISLA team vs a mob of villains on the season finale – who has the last move? 5/14 9 pm ET/PT

Here is the first pic from the season finale, also with the name of the episode and description. (Full size photo can be found in the gallery.)

“Descent” — A nuclear explosion in the Pacific reignites the search for stolen nuclear weapons and prompts Hetty to shuffle the NCIS: LA partnerships, sending Callen and Kensi overseas and leaving Sam and Deeks teamed up state side, on the season finale of NCIS: LOS ANGELES, Tuesday, May 13 (9:00-10:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.