‘The Wizards Return’ Recap: Alex Makes The Ultimate Sacrifice

Courtesy of Disney Channel (2)

To save her family, Alex battles a ghost from her past — and herself!

Wizards of Waverly Place may have ended its four-season run back in Jan. 2012, but as we saw on the March 14 reunion special — The Wizards Return: Alex Vs. Alex — some things never change. Justin (David Henrie) will always be the Russo family’s golden child, even when he’s not around; Max (Jake T. Austin) will always be delightfully stupid, and Alex’s (Selena Gomez) spells will ALWAYS blow up in her face.

‘The Wizards Return: Alex Vs. Alex’

Tired of being criticized for being inadequate, Alex magically cast out all of her “bad parts” into an evil version of herself on the highly anticipated special. But Evil Alex was trapped in a mirror, so nothing bad could happen, right? Wrong. With a little help from Dominic (Beau Mirchoff) — a charming “friend” of Justin’s from Wiz Tech — Evil Alex was set free.

Evil Alex zipped off to Italy, where the entire Russo clan — minus Justin — was enjoying a nice family reunion, and strategically trapped everyone inside her magic charm bracelet. She even trapped Mason (Gregg Sulkin), who already wasn’t a fan of Dominic, as the well-groomed wizard seemed determined to split him Alex up.

That’s when Good Alex discovered Dominic’s big secret: He’s actually the nephew of Gorog — leader of the Angels of Darkness — and he planned to rid the entire world of mortals! In order to get her family back, Good Alex agreed to power up Dominic’s evil machine, which landed her behind bars. Literally.

A surprisingly judgmental group of giant crystals sentenced Alex to death — way harsh! — for her misdeeds, but just when Alex thought all hope was lost, a wolf’d-out Mason sprung her from her cell.

Are Alex’s Wizard-ing Days Over?

A wild battle between the Alexes ensued in Times Square — not unlike my daily scuffles with the costumed Elmos during my commute to work — but it was no use. The only way for Alex to destroy her evil doppelgänger, along with Dominic’s machine, was to also destroy her powers completely.

And in true Wizards fashion, the entire messy ordeal was neatly taken care of in the final moments. Though defeating Evil Alex wasn’t enough to earn her powers back, her friendship with Harper (Jennifer Stone) was!

The crystals gave her Alex one last chance to be good, and she promised they’d be seeing her again someday soon. (Can you say sequel?)

HollywoodLifers, what did you think of the new Wizards movie? Drop us a comment with your personal review!

— Andy Swift

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