Hummmm….let me think here for a moment…

I saw the angels being cast out more like when we saw Anna as a fallen angel - even though with her it was voluntary, that’s the basic premise I got with the angels being cast out of heaven. They were basically stripped of their grace but they are still angels. Anna was still an angel, she could see demon’s true faces and hear “angel radio” and once she recovered her memory she had all the knowledge of an angel, just not the powers. And she could not return to heaven.

With Lucifer, it was a bit different because he was not stripped of his grace, he was just cast out and actually locked up so that he couldn’t interact with heaven or earth anymore. I don’t think that’s what the angels all went though. I think seeing them literally fall (like Anna said happened to her) and their wings burn up as a sign of their grace being taken away (maybe?), tells us that they are more like Anna and less like Lucifer.

Now with Cas it was a bit different, because we actually saw him lose his grace, Metatron has it and we’re not sure what he did with it. Though, like you say, he may have had to use that for the final trial for the spell so that might be gone too. Some people have speculated that the rest of the angels actually lost their grace and it’s gone so potentially, Cas could be the only one out there who could conceivably get his grace back. Or maybe it’s the reverse and Cas is the only one who’s grace is actually gone forever. I dunno. It could be that season 9 will be a hunt for “Angel Grace” and our Team Free Will travel around trying to restore angels to heaven to get back Cas’ grace from Metatron.

So I guess what’s still up in the air is: Have all the angels lost their memories? Has Cas lost his memories? Where are their graces? What is happening in heaven with Metatron and Castiel’s grace?

I don’t think all the angels will have their powers, I think they will be more like Anna before she got her grace back, and like Cas in “The End” where he was basically human, just had the knowledge and a bit of the “site” of an angel. All the knowledge but none of the power. Kinda levels the playing field a bit, lol.

But of course, I could be completely wrong. Ahh…the joys of waiting through a summer hiatus XD

Anyone else have thoughts about this?

It will definitely make you sad, there is no question there. Especially if you are like me, and you get irrationally hooked on fictional characters.

But, that being said, I still watch it. I started watching it knowing it was going to make me sad, but I’m a masochist and I love it. I love being pulled into the lives of the characters and, it being such a cleverly written and well-done show, effortlessly being able to be sad and happy with them.

Because, along with the sadness, you get a lot of awesome stuff. It’s a great show about family, and sticking with each other till the end, and overcoming evil and all that jazz. I’m not a horror-girl. I don’t like to be scared or grossed out, but I feel like that’s not actually the whole point of the show, it’s a show about the brothers and it always comes back to them and their relationship. (in fact, I think the guy who created the show actually said something along those lines. It started off as a horror thing, but then when the audience saw and loved the chemistry between Jared and Jensen, the premise of the show was shifted a bit to make that the focal point.)

Okay, getting a little off topic, but the point is, there is more than just the sadness and I personally think it’s worth it. And I think that the fact that so many of us are able to feel for these characters, and not just the ones we’ve known for several seasons, but even the new characters and the guest stars who we see only briefly…it just says a lot about how well the show is written. 

I say go for it!