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![]() Angel s1e10 Buffy and Angel's tragic love would not be nearly so tragic if it wasn't for the screwball logic of a gypsy matriarch over a hundred years ago. What is the Happiness Clause You know that bit at the end of Surprise? You know the one; Angel, shirtless, in agony "Buffeeeeeeeeeeeey!" Well, that's the happiness clause... a misnomer? Perhaps. The Happiness clause is that particularly vindictive addendum that was built into his curse that restored his soul by the gypsies. If Angel ever experiences a perfect moment of happiness his soul (that wages constant war inside his mind against the demon) is cast out into the ether and he reverts to his original vampiric state, known as Angelus.
What do we know about the Happiness Clause The only definition we have been given of the specifics of the Happiness Clause comes courtesy of Jenny's uncle, Enyos. "The curse. Angel is meant to suffer, not to live as human. One moment of true happiness, of contentment, one moment where the soul that we restored no longer plagues his thoughts, and that soul is taken from him."
One moment of true happiness... as a lawyer I have problems with that definition. It begs the question:
What exactly caused Angel to lose his soul? What provoked the one moment of true happiness? Well, the obvious explanation is that he had just slept with Buffy. It could be true that 'happiness' is just a family euphemism for sexual intercourse, certainly the only time that Angel has lost his soul has been after a sexual encounter and he has had no other sexual encounters (to our knowledge) to disprove such an assertion. But let's look at what actually happened.
He and Buffy, post-coital, were lying in bed together. Angel sits up in pain and then runs out of the apartment to have his soul extracted. The most obvious moment for the 'happiness' would of course be the point of orgasm but the sexual act had been completed for long enough for them both to fall asleep before Angel even began to feel the twinges of loss, so why was there such a delay?
It's possible that there is an inherent delay within the happiness clause but there has been no mention of such a thing and there is some circumstantial evidence in the other soul spells that would indicate that the effect would be immediate. The, albeit fake, stripping of Angel's soul in Enemies was instantaneous, the restoration of his soul in Becoming, while of course we have no idea of the actual time scale, the two scenes were portrayed as occurring concurrently. Weak evidence indeed, but better than the no evidence we have to support a time-delay theory.
But the idea of 'happiness' merely being a euphemism for orgasm or sex does not do the concept justice. Yes, sex can be happy, but it needn't be so. The clause does specifically state happiness and contentment and, given no further interpretation, I think we must accept those terms at face value especially given the intention of the curse which was the make Angel live a life of misery, rather than one without sex specifically.
More tenuous evidence can be derived from Enemies. Faith's plan to turn Angel was almost certainly to do it by sleeping with him. She and the Mayor believed that any sort of sex would be enough to grant Angel his 'happiness'. Where did they get their knowledge from however? We know that cursing vampires with souls is not a common event. Angel is the only example we have ever heard of. The most likely source of their information is Faith's digging around in the Buffy and Angel relationship. She might have learnt Enyos' words above, but the one thing she certainly would have discovered is that Angel lost his soul immediately after having sleeping with Buffy. Despite the Mayor's knowledge of the black arts it is unlikely that he would have any better information on the subject, during his conversation with the Mage he appears quite ignorant on the subject. Given what they knew at the time, their course of action is rational. It does not add weight to the argument that sex is all that is required.
What caused Angel to lose his soul in Surprise while he was asleep rather than during intercourse? That's a question that could only be answered by him, Buffy or the sheets. But I think this comment from a Bronzer puts it perfectly:
The future
If we are correct in our assertion that 'happiness' is more than just sex then we have to consider whether sex is a prerequisite or not. Of course, there's no evidence for this, but my instinctive reaction follows that of Malista, that the sex was merely circumstantial rather than integral. If this is so, then Angel runs the risk of losing his soul accidentally, without the obvious signpost of sex to warn him just before he gets a 'happiness' attack.
Now he's in his own series, he's getting out in the day more, he's been known to let the occasional smile flash across his dark features, he's come close to the point of wearing pastels... these are not the actions of a soul whose entire existence is suffering, as the curse intended. Isn't he getting a bit too happy in this new life to really be out of danger from the happiness clause?
Ironically, every single piece of evidence that can be raised to show he is happy and content at the moment, is also evidence to show that he's not in danger. He saw the sun for the first time in centuries in In the Dark, he got annoyingly saccharine in Sense and Sensitivity, Cordelia kissed him in Parting Gifts (which should be enough to any 'real' man, or even Wesley, one of Xander's 'happy's) and by the end of that episode he, Cordelia and Wesley were looking disturbingly familial around the breakfast table. No doubt there will be further examples in the future. The fact that he has managed to emerge from these situations soul-intact demonstrates that he is not in danger from losing it in ordinary, or even extra-ordinary (i.e. feeling the warmth of the sun on his cold skin), situations. Which begs the question, what does it take? Exactly how much slack does the happiness clause give him? Because it seems that if he could live his entire existence as content as he appears in those situations then he's certainly not living the eternal torment that the curse was supposed to ensure.
Your opinion Or you can
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