I would call your second option the Quantum Leap ending.  God I loved that show as a kid.

Posted by: Gary Atkins

Which is worse?

Cooper dying a heroic death.

Or

Cooper going on to fight evil in adventures that we never get to see.

aaand...discuss.

Cooper's death would be the worst for sure because if you have imagination, you can decide what happens to him in his unseen adventures.

I think the answer to that question depends on which you love more: 1) The Twin Peaks mythology or 2) Cooper. Both are perfectly legitimate ways to watch the show.

But for me, it's Cooper - so Cooper dying would be worse. It's tragic to think about living in a world that will never again have Special Agent Dale Cooper in it. An open-ended conclusion where Coop is potentially still out there fighting the good fight, even if the show never returns, at least avoids that crushing finality.

On a side note, this finale was unsettling for me because I’m not of the opinion that “Richard”=Cooper. They left us in a world that’s again Cooper-less, which is not as bad as his death, but still a bleak place to be.

For someone more in love with the mythology, I can easily see taking the other side. If Cooper died in a storyline that brought great insight into the Twin Peaks universe, and set a course for the saga to continue without him, I can see how some fans would accept that tradeoff. But for me, Coop is the spark that makes it all worthwhile. A really Coop-less Twin Peaks is not a show I would watch.