This is part I of a three part series on this series finale.

Disney’s hit show and one of our family favorites, Wizards of Waverly Place, has ended. We all knew this day would come, we just hoped it would be a little far away. It makes sense though, as the main character has finally completed high school - which is when most teen shows come to a close. At any rate, Wizards went out in style - with an hour-long episode that I’m sure exceeded expectations in many regards. Because of the amount of information, I’m covering this series ending in three parts. Please note that the actual episode is a straight 60 minutes long.

At the beginning of the episode, Alex is in the kitchen of her home making a spaghetti dinner for her family. While chatting with her friend Harper, we find that she is doing this for one reason - so that her family will be pleasantly surprised. The rest of the Russo clan arrives, and all suspect an ulterior motive. They find out that it really was a selfless act on her part, however, when Professor Crumbs from Wiz-Tech appears and announces that Alex’s selfless act has triggered the beginning of the Family Wizard Competition.

The Russos are then transported to complete the competition to see who will be the family wizard. The competition is in the form of a game show called Last Wizard Standing. Each time the family wizard competition was mentioned during the show over the past years, I wondered what form the competition would take. I thought that the game show was a very fun and appropriate way to do this, and enjoyed watching them compete. Harper wasn’t transported because she’s human, and so she elected to invite Zeke over and watch the show from the lair.

The competition guidelines featured one 15 minute time out and one challenge for each of them- each could challenge the answer of a sibling only once. Round One of the competition featured the trio answering questions about what the correct use of a specific spell would be. Justin scored easily and took the lead, although he answered a question incorrectly. That question was surprisingly answered by Max, who then held second place. Alex finished the round with no points.

To support their respective partners, both Mason (Alex’s boyfriend) and Juliet (Justin’s girlfriend) showed up at the competition. They acknowledged each other, but just barely, as each still harbored hard feelings about their past entanglements*. Back in the lair, Zeke and Harper are watching the show. Zeke begins messing with things, and while Harper is off making popcorn, accidentally sniffs a potion that turns him purple and itchy from the inside. Not knowing what to do or being able to wait for the wizards’ return, they run through the portal to seek help.

Thus, part I comes to a close.

*For those who don’t know or remember, Mason and Juliet dated hundreds of years before but broke up. Once they were each dating their respective Russo, this fact came out, temporarily breaking up Alex and Mason. When Mason attempts to patch things up with Alex, Justin attempts to protect Alex from Mason, who he thinks will hurt her. The two begin fighting, and just before Mason is poised to mortally would Justin, Juliet jumps on his back and bites him on the shoulder. In the process, Mason scratched Juliet with his claws. It is then explained that a vampire bite will turn Mason into a full werewolf forever, while a werewolf scratch to Juliet will transform her to her real age. Mason changes into a wolf and Juliet becomes really, really old (2193!), and both pairs break up. They sort all this out in later episodes and everyone turns back to normal (I use that word loosely).