Maybe I'm confusing canon with actual Bible lore, but God was aroung to cast Lucifer down, yes? So I'd say, if that is correct, that God departed sometime after, and that Metatron skidaddled soon after that, just as the rest of the angels started to raise a fuss. But a part of me thinks that God leaving just after casting Lucy down would have caused a fuck-ton of problems (civil war, loss of brothers, Dad ditches). It seems more reasonable that after the civil war and Lucifer's fall, things went on for a bit, God restored order, and then ditched.

The way he referred to the archangels as a unit made me think he left before they were, enh, decimated.

But they weren't "decimated" until more current timelines, right? Recently, Michael and Lucifer alive but locked up, Raph dead, Gabe Dead. So leaving before that could mean leaving in 1999. Maybe our head canons aren't lining up as to when a lot of the internal politics went down. I've just been assuming that the tablets being written and hidden, Metatron fleeing, Naomi brainwashing angels, has been happening for millenia/centuries, since whenever God left the building.

Lucifer cast out, God retires, archangels flip out, Metatron flees, Naomi opportunizes, Zach and Raph conspire, Zach fails, Raph fails, Naomi waits in the wings and pounces once the big dogs are out of the way.

Maybe.

At least at first, Lucifer's beef seemed to be with God rather than Michael. And he presumably started converting humans into demons after being cast down. Though I guess God could have dictated the demon tablet to Metatron before there were actually were demons...

As to the "cure a demon" thing. Demons are human souls tortured and broken until they become demons, with the show canon. So one interpretation is getting hold of demon, and healing it until it just a ghost again, rather than a demon. Alternatively I guess they find a demon with some sort of supernatural illness and cure it, but I'm betting on the former rather than the latter.

If so: picturing Sam administrating really intensive therapy. Might make for a good comedy ep, but I don't think they are going to go there.

Makes me wish that the demon they cured was Meg, but alas. The "curing a demon" seems too huge to leave to a new demon, but the only familiar face we have left is Crowley.

Oh, that burns. The idea of sealing Hell for good is giving Crowley the gift of redemption, potential access to Heavan.

A thought struck me that the reason that these tablets were written was so that they could be read, and therefore it was God's will that Heaven and Hell be closed.

Is it clear if the closing is one way only? Will souls continue to be able to pass into either afterwards? Or would that force all remaining souls to exist as ghosts on the earthly plane? That's kind of horrific.

I'm curious about Met's question about what closing Hell means; I can't remember the phrasing, but to me, it intimated both "Think of what you would give up" (i.e., Sam -- what DOES it take to cure a demon? To close Hell? Sam's going downhill -- methinks God likes/needs sacrifices, so something so huge would have a price beyond "flu symptoms" and that's backed by Cas saying that this is changing Sam and he can't repair it.)

Also...so, say the gates of Hell close. Will demons gallivanting on Earth when they close be here, permanently? No exorcisms; no Hell to go back to. You might cast them out, but they'll just hop hosts. Where do giant evil people-soul's go after death? Heaven ain't an option. Will Purgatory be closed also? What about cosmic balance -- if the gates of Hell close, will Heaven close, too?

I got a very "Is there light if there is no dark" vibe from Metatron, too.

I was wondering how demonic the demonic thing was that would need to be cured .... could the "demon" being cured be Sam being purified by the trials? Or does it have to be a "straight up, black hat, tied to the train tracks, soon my electro-ray will destroy Metropolis, bad" kind of demon?

There was so much emphasis on that scene, and the child who knew he wasn't clean, and now saying he's being purified. I really like the idea, too, because it could lead to some interesting consequences.