SPOILER ALERT! This post contains details from the Season 2 premiere of Wizards Beyond Waverly Place.
EXCLUSIVE: Wizards Beyond Waverly Place had quite the reveal in store for its Season 2 finale.
In the final episode of the sophomore season, which debuted on Disney+ Wednesday, audiences finally find out why Alex Russo (Selena Gomez) has been so committed to protecting Billie (Janice LeAnn Brown). Billie is, in fact, Alex’s daughter.
The truth is revealed no only to the audience but also to all of the characters in the final moments of the two-part finale — even Alex, who had used a memory wiping spell on herself, Billie and Justin (David Henrie) after dropping Billie off at Wiz Tech in order to keep her safe.
“Obviously, she had to make a hard choice as a mom to protect her child,” Gomez said of Alex’s decision to part ways with her daughter.
She and Brown spoke about filming the reveal in the featurette above, shared exclusively with Deadline.
The scene, during the group’s final confrontation with an evil wizard named Lord Morsus (one of many who has it out for the Russos, apparently), is quite the tearjerker. Alex, Justin, Roman (Alkaio Thiele) and Milo (Max Matenko) are all tied to chairs, watching helplessly as Lord Morsus forces Billie to help him open a portal that will connect their world and the world of dark magic.
Alex begins to cry as she watches Billie, and the single tear that streaks down her face lands on the Penwolf locket she’d acquired from the gossip stone earlier in the episode. The locket opens, revealing the memory of Alex and Justin dropping Billie at Wiz Tech before wiping their memories to everyone in the room.
“It was very emotional,” Brown says of the scene, to which Gomez adds: “We were just puddles.”
Once Milo manages to get everyone untied, there is only one way to close the portal: from the inside. Alex sacrifices herself, tackling Morsus and tossing them both into the portal. After it closes behind them, the Russo family vows to find her.
Wizards Beyond Waverly Place has yet to be renewed for a third season. However, the Season 2 cliffhanger definitely leaves the door open for more story to come.
“I don’t know if you picked up on this, one of the little easter eggs in the scene where Selena goes back in time…she’s wearing a wedding ring. So a big thing for us is: Who was her husband? Who is Billie’s father?” Henrie told Deadline during a recent interview about the season.
In order to answer those questions, Henrie says subsequent seasons will “retrace Alex’s footsteps” to understand her past.
“There’s a lot there to play with that provokes these bigger questions around identity, legacy, [and] belonging for Billie and for all the Russos,” he said.
Diving into Alex’s past also likely means revisiting some of the characters from Wizards of Waverly Place who might’ve played a part. Henrie teases, “there’s going to be a lot of organic opportunities for original characters from the original show to come back into the equation.”
Gomez has thus far only briefly appeared in a few episodes, but, until now, Alex’s involvement in the characters’ stories was also fairly limited.
The path the story has now taken deepens Alex’s connection to the show quite deeply, naturally setting the stage for the star and executive producer to return for another season of Wizards Beyond, at least in the guest star capacity she has for the first two, if not in an expanded role.
If Gomez’s own sentiments are any indication, though, it won’t take a mental magic spell to keep her on board for more.
“It’s actually really fun for me to come back and hang out with you guys. It’s honestly been nostalgic for me,” Gomez says in the video above, adding: “It’s honestly been a wonderful experience. It’s so fun to see us pass the baton to a new generation.”