Gwen Raiden (portrayed by Alexa Davalos) is first introduced in season four's Ground State as a mutant with the ability to funnel electricity. Her origin is uncharacteristically shown to the audience via a flashback montage before the primary action of the episode takes place. Born with these abilities, Gwen has little control over her abilities as a child, and in 1985, is taken to a boarding school. She accidentally kills one of her new classmates when her powers react to the toy car he offers to share.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 Chase 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 (in Long Day's Journey ), she assists Angel in fighting against the machinations of The Beast and takes an interest in Gunn. During her last 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 ultimately helps her to steal the item, sharing an intimate physical moment with her after the device seems to work.Gwen has 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. She can also use the electricity that she generates internally to augment her physical performance, allowing her to hold her own against Angel in hand-to-hand combat. Although her powers initially came with dangerous, uncontrollable elements, the inability to touch others and the tendency to attract lighting, these drawbacks appear to have been rectified after use of the device she appropriated in her final appearance.She is set to appear in Angel: After the Fall. Show less «