  In this paper, we consider a couple of alternative dark energy models using
the total equation of state of the cosmological fluid, $\wt$. These models are
fit to the recent type-Ia supernovae data and are compared to previously
considered models. The first model is based on the hyperbolic tangent and
provides a good estimate of the rate of the transition to dark energy
domination. The second model is a cubic spline model. This model demonstrates
and quantifies the non-monotonicity in the total equation of state coming from
the supernovae observations. At present, the supernovae observations indicate
significance to non-monotonically decreasing dark energy. We derive constraints
on the spline paramters and compare and constrast the results to the
Cosmological Constant dark energy model. Both the hyperbolic and splines models
indicate that a precise physical notion of dark enegy is a potentially ever
more mysterious quantity?
