Gwen Raiden is a self-named freak. From an early age, a strong electric current has run through her body, affecting everything and everyone she touches. She is educated at a private acadamy for 'special' pupils like herself and grows up to be a beautiful and excellent thief. She runs into Angel and crew while on a job to steal an artifact, the Axis of Pythia, worth $33 million dollars. While the Axis is only worth dollars to Gwen, to Angel it is the only thing that will help him to find Cordelia. Although Gwen manages to steal the Axis first (killing and reviving Gunn whilst doing so), when she is double-crossed by her client, Angel helps her out and, despite her attraction to him, she loans him the Axis so that he can find his woman.

Taking her $33 million, Gwen truns an old run down apartment in a bad area of LA and transforms into a place fit for a freak. She is still unable to resist the temptations of a life of crime but turns again to Angel when one of her clients is killed by The Beast right in front of her eyes. Discovering a pattern to The Beast recent spate of killings, Angel Investigations discover that he is after the five totems which he needs to collect order to perform a ritual to block out the sun. Gwen helps Angel rescue the fifth and only surviving totem and hides him in her fortress like apartment. Somehow The Beast still manages to break in and steal the final piece to his puzzle

Gwen turns to Angel Investigations one more time, but this time it's Gunn that she needs. She lures him into helping her stealing LISA, a Localized Ionic Sensory Activator. This device regulates body heat, heartbeat, and body chemistry enabling Gwen to touch another human without harming them for the first time. She tests that theory on Gunn.

In the present day The Beast is resurected by Cordelia, who has been taken over by a higher being and one of his first jobs is to destroy Wolfram & hart, turning all their employees into zombies. Only Lilah gets out alive. Despite Angel Investigations attempts to stop him, he performs a ritual to block out the sun. But his days in Los Angeles are numbered when Team Angel decide to bring back Angelus to help them destroy The Beast. Angelus escapes with a little help from evil Cordy, but her plan backfires when Angelus' steals a knife made from The Beast's bones and uses it to destroy The Beast.