Wow, Real Life gobbled me up! ;-) Anyhow, just wanted to say thank you for sharing in the thinky, and to offer a couple random thoughts of my own.

I tend to think without more evidence that they represent more the type of "a few bad apples in every barrel" than a group with enough numbers and influence to usurp Heaven itself. Castiel's group seem to be the majority, angels with faith who to the best of their knowledge are carrying out what they believe is God's will.
I agree. Zachariah's comment about keeping the truth from the troops strongly suggests an abuse of the chain of command, directly in order to keep the ordinary angle "grunts" from learning what's really going on. Angels, most angels, I believe are indeed "good," even the warriors like Castiel, and it's the few, stinky-in-the-barrel bad apples like Zach who are falling into the same trap of pride and disobedience that Lucifer did.

It will/would be interesting to learn whether Zachariah honestly thinks God has "left the building" and no longer cares, or if he, like Lucifer, simply feels he knows better and that his defiance is warranted in light of God's apparent hands-off policy, the last couple millenia. The cat's away, or something else? I hope we'll get a better sense of that, as it's an intriguing thing. Does Zach truly not fear God's wrath, or does he somehow feel they can pull one over while God's not looking? Or does he think since Armageddon is forecast for "someday," it's okay if he takes control and just moves the timeline up?

Hm. ;-) Yup, brain aching time, lol!

Is it September, yet?

(Also excellent points about the earlier conversation with Dean and Casey.)