Wizards Beyond Waverly Place Cast Reacts To 'Emotional' Alex Twist In Season 2 Finale: 'Everyone Cried At The Table Read'

Spoiler alert: This article reveals a major twist in the Wizards Beyond Waverly Place Season 2 finale. Haven't watched? You've been warned!

The only thing bigger than the twist at the end of Wizards Beyond Waverly Place Season 2 is the willpower is took star and executive producer David Henrie to keep from spilling the beans ahead of time.

"I knew where we were going this season, and I had to bite my lip, because I knew that everyone was going to freak out," Henrie tells TVLine. "For seven months, I was just waiting for the moment [the cast] got to read the script with the ending. When we finally read it, everyone cried at the table read with all the executives and all the different folks that work on the show. Everyone was just deeply moved and touched. It was exactly what I had hoped for."

So, what was the twist that elicited all these waterworks? In the season finale, now streaming on Disney+, we learn that new wizard Billie is actually the daughter of Selena Gomez's Alex — which also makes her Justin and Giada's niece, and Roman and Milo's cousin. It turns out that Alex brought Billie to WizTech when she was just a child to keep her safe from Lord Morsus, aka her grandfather.

With the evil Morsus hot on Billie's trail, Alex magically erased everyone's memories of one another to keep her daughter safe. "I would do anything to be with you, but right now, there's someone out there trying to find you, and I can't let that happen," Alex tells Billie in a flashback. Billie's father is also revealed to be Morsus' son Damian, whose evil nature was conquered by his love for Alex.

"At the beginning of every week, not at the main table read, the kids get together and read the script first — as we were reading it, Alkaio [Thiele] looked over to me and he said, 'Are you crying?' I was like, 'Yeah man, I'm crying. This is emotional!'" recalls Janice LeAnn Brown. "It was hitting me!"

Unfortunately, Alex and Billie's mother-daughter reunion is tragically short-lived. Alex volunteers to push Morsus through a portal and save her family, with Justin promising that they'll find her someday — wherever she is.

But even if you think you've fully processed the "emotional ending," Henrie suggests giving the finale a second look. "You have to go back and watch it a second time," he says. "There are some Easter eggs we put in, especially with Selena's character, that reveal major backstory [points]. You're going to be like, 'Is that what I think it is? ... It is!' It's going to make you wonder what happened to her from the time the original show ended to today."

Fans have been speculating a potential maternal connection between Alex and Billie since Season 1, and Henrie acknowledges to TVLine that fans were getting "real inventive" with their theories. "They're asking the right questions, the right discussion points," he says. "I love how creative people are."

One theory even speculated that Billie's mother was actually Alex's evil twin from the 2013 Disney Channel special Wizards of Waverly Place: Alex vs. Alex, but we can officially put that one to rest.

Were you surprised by the Billie/Alex reveal, or did you call it early on? Grade Season 2 of Wizards Beyond Waverly Place below, then drop a comment with your thoughts on the game-changing twist.