Spoiler Alert - Todd's summary

Okay okay, I've got most of my questions answered from the excellent Dead Birds Movie Field Guide (http://www.moviesonline.ca/movienews_3871.html) and from watching the DVD extras.

But I'm _still_ confused about Todd's character; it was said by the writer that he wanted the character to shoot himself and die, rather than suffer a "fate worse than death", but this got axed apparently by the director. Also briefly (jokingly?) discussed was having Todd pop out of the cornfield at the end of the movie with the bags of gold in hand.
Keeping in mind that the cornfield has been verified as a barrier between the real world and the demon world (and thus why the Dog doesn't go to the house, amongst other things...)....
Did Todd die / get disintegrated when he's pushed back by the Sam Demon, or did he escape the Demon World / cornfield? And is that why they'd consider (unless it was a joke) having him pop out at the end with the loot?
And if he did die, I must venture, that's a really uncharacteristic and idiotic thing of the movie to do; the swirlie blackness that he falls into is way out of place for this movie, it seemed to me.

I loved this creep-fest; any help would be appreciated with this question about this character!