Angel/Gwen Raiden

Gwen Raiden
Angel
Actor	Alexa Davalos
First Appearance	4x02 - Ground State
Last Appearance	4x16 - Players
Series Billing	4x02 to 4x16: Recurring
Episode Count	3
Notable Episodes	4x02 - Ground State 4x16 - Players

Gwen Raiden is an enhanced human (or perhaps a mutant) who can generate and manipulate electrical currents. She is a professional thief and is often hired to steal mystical relics. Gwen is played by Alexa Davalos and appeared in three episodes of Angel. She was credited as a guest star in all three episodes.

Basic Information

As a child, Gwen was forced to wear protective clothing in order to control the electrical output of her body. Due to the lack of control over her abilities, she accidentally killed or hurt two gardeners and four nannies. In 1985, because she couldn't function normally, she was sent to a boarding school in Gills Rock, Wisconsin. There, she nearly made a friend in a little boy who offered her a toy car, but when she touched him she accidentally killed him instantly.

In 2002, Gwen is a professional thief aided by her butler. She was hired by a man named Elliot to steal the Axis of Pythia, a mystical device that allows the user to see souls in different planes of reality. It was on this heist where she met Angel, Gunn and Fred. After electrocuting Gunn to the point that his heart stopped, she revived him and escaped with the Axis—only to be tracked down by Angel. Although she delivered the Axis to her client, he trapped her and Angel in an elevator where he attempted to poison them with a deadly gas. They managed to escape and Gwen gave the Axis to Angel as thanks for saving her. He later returned it.

After cashing in on the Axis of Pythia, she planned to take a vacation to Tahiti with her butler. But when one of her clients was killed by the Beast in front of her, she went to Angel for help. With her help, they found one of the Ra-tet (the beings the demon was systematically killing) and attempted to protect him in her home. She aided Angel and the others in an attempt to stop the Beast from blotting out the sun, but ultimately failed.

After coming back from Tahiti, Gwen went to Angel Investigations for help in rescuing a girl from a large company. She claimed that she was hired by a rival company for some corporate sabotage and the kidnapping was in retaliation. She and Gunn went to a party held by Takeshi Morimoto in order to rescue the girl, named Lisa. However, when Gunn went off to "save the girl," it was really just a diversion so that Gwen could steal her true target, L.I.S.A. (short for localized ionic sensory activator), a piece of electronics developed by Morimoto's company that was in beta testing.

Although she claimed that the device is being stolen for another company, she actually stole it for herself. At her home after the heist, Gwen and Gunn "installed" L.I.S.A. and allowed it to connect with her body. The device neutralized her powers, which allowed her and Gunn to have sex.

Several years later, after the Senior Partners banished Los Angeles to hell following Angel's betrayal of Wolfram & Hart, Gwen resurfaced. She, along with Connor and Nina, operates a sanctuary for humans and good demons.

Episode Appearances

Gwen Raiden appeared in three episodes of Angel:

1. 4x02 - Ground State
2. 4x09 - Long Day's Journey
3. 4x16 - Players

Trivia

• Raiden is the Japanese god of thunder and lightning, his name is derived from two words, rai (meaning thunder) and den (meaning lightning). In the Mortal Kombat series of video games, a character named Raiden was based off of this mythical god because of his electric powers. It is safe to assume the same reasoning went behind the naming of Gwen.

• Gwen is likely influenced by the X-Men character Rogue. Rogue's mutant ability to drain the lifeforce out of anyone just by touch forced her to wear clothing that kept skin exposure to a minimum. Much like in Gwen's backstory, Rogue's powers manifested when she kissed a boy and accidentally put him into a coma.