A few questions about basic capacitor concepts
The Master of Analogies is here again...

You can think of the capacitor as a balloon.

While you're blowing the balloon up air is flowing out of your lungs (battery) and into the balloon (current flowing to charge the capacitor).  As the balloon increases in size it displaces the air around it (the repulsed charge from the opposite plate of the capacitor).  That is, until you have blown the balloon up as far as you can, at which point the air (current) can no longer flow.

If you put too much air pressure (voltage) the balloon bursts (just like a capacitor - have you ever seen an electrolytic explode?).

If you look at the charge curve of a capacitor it's actually very similar to the air flow curve you get when blowing up a balloon - rapid initial inflation then it gradually tapers off as it gets harder to get more air into it.

And yes, when you release the balloon the air flows out the way it came - in reverse.