The original end to the Alpha Couple story, “Alpha Omega” features a last meal of a different variety.

Track: “Alpha Omega”
Album: Protein Source of the Future…Now! (1999)

“Alpha Omega” was released on a compilation album in 1995 (and re-released in 1999 as part of another album) and was originally the last song in the story of the Alpha Couple. Tallahassee would eventually follow it in 2002 and offer a deeper look at the couple that gets together and breaks apart over dozens of songs across the Mountain Goats’ career.

It would have been a fine ending if Tallahassee weren’t such a spectacular album. The narrator wakes up to a note on scented paper that tells them it is over. They then make boiled peanuts and think about what this all means. This is the same couple as the two in “No Children,” so an eventual sad end was inevitable. The boiled peanuts is just a John Darnielle touch. If you’ve never had them, you should try them. Just like the Mountain Goats, no one “likes” boiled peanuts, you feel very strongly if you like them at all.

One half of the Alpha Couple standing around with boiled peanuts and a goodbye note is a sad image, but it’s even sadder with this delivery. John Darnielle’s voice cracks the same way your voice would crack if you told someone about this moment in your life. It stands out even among other intentional cracks from the early albums.

“Alpha Rats Nest” ultimately replaces this song in the story and offers us an ending that is slightly more ambiguous. The Alpha Couple doesn’t survive either story, but Tallahassee doesn’t have this hard door-slam moment. Tallahassee is possibly the most complete Mountain Goats album, but we’ll always have this earlier branch of the story where someone actually got out alive.