Gwen Raiden

"I'm a freak."

- Gwen

Gwen Raiden is superpowered human thief and an ally of Angel Investigations. She was played by Alexa Davalos.

Early life
In 1985, Gwen is a young girl, bundled up in heavy winter clothing, taken by her parents to a boarding school in Gills Rock, Wisconsin. There, she is isolated from the other children. Outside in the playground during recess, a male classmate asks if she is a "freak" and tells her that she does not look like one. Heartened by this gesture, Gwen smiles and the boy offers to share one of his toy cars with her. As she reaches out to take it, an electrical shock travels from Gwen to the classmate, killing him instantly.

Thief
In 2002, the 25-year-old Gwen is using her powers to facilitate her career as a successful, wealthy, professional thief. She meets Angel when she is hired to steal a valuable artifact called the Axis Of Pythia, which he needs in order to find Cordelia on her higher plane.

Finding the artifact, Gwen and Angel fight over its possession. During the course of the battle, Gwen tries to kill Angel with an electric shock. However since he's already dead, her attack actually serves to make his dead heart beat again for a few seconds (this power had been illustrated earlier in the episode, where she restarts Gunn's normal heartbeat after her own powers affected him). Caught in the moment, Angel gives Gwen a passionate kiss. After he regains his focus on Cordelia, the man who hired Gwen reveals that he had trapped her and intended to kill her with poison gas. The vampiric Angel is unaffected by the gas, enabling him to rescue Gwen. In gratitude, Gwen allows Angel to use the artifact. Afterwards he returns it to her, and she presumably sells it for a high price.

The second time Gwen appears, she assists Angel in fighting against the machinations of the Beast and takes an interest in Gunn.

During her last televised appearance, she asks Gunn to help her with a mission under the pretence of helping a kidnapped girl; in fact, she is trying to steal an experimental device which will allow her to touch others without killing them. Gunn grudgingly agrees, and shares an intimate physical moment with her afterwards.

After the Fall
During her first night she was making out when suddenly L.A. went to hell; her chip malfunctioned and she fried the guy. Angry, she walked off to find out what happened. Gwen currently provides humans and good demons sanctuary with the help of Nina Ash and Connor after Los Angeles was sent to hell by the Senior Partners.

Powers and abilities
Gwen is a mutant with the ability to generate and manipulate electricity. This power can be used in a number of ways, from creating powerful and damaging electric blasts to manipulating and controlling electronic devices. The latter proves especially useful in her role as a high-tech, professional thief, a career at which she seems especially skilled and adept, making herself quite wealthy in the process. Her powers initially came with dangerous, uncontrollable elements. She was rendered unable to touch anyone without her power harming them and she would tend to attract lightning. These drawbacks appear to have been rectified using a device she appropriated in the episode "Players" which allowed her to touch other people without causing harm, however she lost this ability when Los Angeles was sent to Hell, as revealed in After the Fall.

Relationships

 * Angel — Gwen and Angel share a spontaneous kiss during a heated battle, with Gwen's usually-lethal powers temporarily causing the vampire's heart to beat.
 * Charles Gunn — Gwen lost her virginity to Gunn after he helped her suppress her abilities.
 * Nate — Gwen was on an awkward date with Nate when Los Angeles was sent to hell by Wolfram & Hart. Unaware that her powers had been reactivated, Gwen electrocuted him.
 * Connor — Gwen and Connor began dating while protecting the citizens of L.A. in hell.

Trivia
Her origins are perhaps a tribute to many comic book characters, particularly those of Marvel Comics characters such as Rogue, another mutant character who dealt with similar issues concerning her inability to touch people. Her name is likely a reference to Raiden: the mythological Japanese god of thunder and lightning and/or the Mortal Kombat character Raiden.

Angel Season 4

 * Ground State
 * Long Day's Journey
 * Players

Angel: After the Fall

 * After the Fall 
 * After the Fall 
 * After the Fall 
 * After the Fall 
 * After the Fall 
 * After the Fall