Should I just spend this entire section memorializing our dearly departed friend, Eddie Munson? Because I want to.
The Duffer Brothers love to do this—they get us emotionally attached to a pure-of-heart character for a short period of time and then kill them off in a particularly gruesome way. Exhibits A and B: Bob and Alexei. Bob was viciously eaten to death by a pack of demodogs and Alexei was shot in the chest. And now we have Eddie, who was attacked by a horde of demobats in an effort to save the rest of his crew—ain't that always the way.
Long live Eddie Munson.
I was honestly shocked (and relieved) that they didn't decide to kill off Steve, though that doesn't take away from the loss of Eddie. On top of him, we almost lost Max, though her fate is still pretty up in the air as she's been in a coma ever since her entire body was cracked and her eyes burst. You know, the usual.
Basically, the crew's entire plan was based on the assumption that every step would go right; the only problem is that at every point of the plan, something went wrong. Well, except for stealing that family's mobile home—that went pretty well.
To start things off, Jason came in and disrupted Max and Lucas' portion (and then proceeded to beat up Lucas) while Erica was also being held hostage by Jason's goons across the street. Dustin and Eddie got stuck in a bad situation with the demobats, with Eddie sacrificing himself in order for the plan to continue. While heading upstairs in Vecna's house, Steve, Nancy, and Robin collectively got stuck in the house's vines, leaving them idle and gasping for air.
Basically, everything went wrong, which we're not used to seeing in Stranger Things.
While they were ultimately able to pull off their Molotov cocktail shots at Vecna, he somehow lived and vanished from the scene, now on the run in Hawkins. Because nothing's better than a loose, tentacled human monster roaming the streets of your hometown.