'NCIS: LA': Major character shot in season premiere! -- EXCLUSIVE VIDEO

There’s trouble afoot on NCIS: LA.

As previously teased, a beloved member of the team is going to take a bullet in the show’s Sept. 20 premiere. But who? The explosive new promo, which EW has scored exclusively, has your answer…[Major spoiler ahead!!]

IT’S HETTY!

As you pick your jaw up off the floor, allow executive producer Shane Brennan to explain the decision, and how it ties together Hetty (Linda Hunt) and Callen (Chris O’Donnell): “Linda is always up for anything, and it seemed right. It seemed like the right way for us to get into revealing a big piece of Callen’s backstory and, in the process, her backstory. We find out as much about Callen as we do about Hetty in this first episode. It was really, I guess, a way of us exploring the hidden relationship between Callen and Hetty.”

And while Brennan says the premiere — which will pick up seconds after the finale and be told in real-time — will reveal “quite a lot,” a new string of questions will most certainly arise from the information we learn. “When you [watch] at something like this, you get answers, but then you’re like, ‘Ok, but why did that happen. Or when did that happen?’ There are always questions that spring from the answers.”

So can fans expect a massive cliffhanger ending in the premiere? Brennan wouldn’t say. But he teased, “It isn’t quite what you think; that’s what I’ll say. I’m a great believer in playing with the audience’s expectations. And I guess that’s one of the reasons NCIS: LA is successful. We keep them a little unsettled.”

Watch the exclusive promo below!

And, in case you missed it, my chat with Daniela Ruah and LL Cool J:

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