diff --git a/go/libraries/doltcore/merge/merge_prolly_rows.go b/go/libraries/doltcore/merge/merge_prolly_rows.go
index f279b4afa0..46f8655b4b 100644
--- a/go/libraries/doltcore/merge/merge_prolly_rows.go
+++ b/go/libraries/doltcore/merge/merge_prolly_rows.go
@@ -749,8 +749,7 @@ func (idx uniqIndex) insertRow(ctx context.Context, key, value val.Tuple) error
 		return err
 	}
 
-	newValue := val.NewTuple(idx.secondary.NodeStore().Pool(), nil)
-	return idx.secondary.Put(ctx, secondaryIndexKey, newValue)
+	return idx.secondary.Put(ctx, secondaryIndexKey, val.EmptyTuple)
 }
 
 func (idx uniqIndex) removeRow(ctx context.Context, key, value val.Tuple) error {
diff --git a/go/libraries/doltcore/merge/mutable_secondary_index.go b/go/libraries/doltcore/merge/mutable_secondary_index.go
index 062402edd5..6c99f52d59 100644
--- a/go/libraries/doltcore/merge/mutable_secondary_index.go
+++ b/go/libraries/doltcore/merge/mutable_secondary_index.go
@@ -125,14 +125,9 @@ func (m MutableSecondaryIdx) UpdateEntry(ctx context.Context, key, currValue, ne
 
 	err = m.mut.Delete(ctx, currKey)
 	if err != nil {
-		return nil
+		return err
 	}
-	err = m.mut.Put(ctx, newKey, val.EmptyTuple)
-	if err != nil {
-		return nil
-	}
-
-	return nil
+	return m.mut.Put(ctx, newKey, val.EmptyTuple)
 }
 
 // DeleteEntry deletes a secondary index entry given they key and value of the primary row.
@@ -142,11 +137,7 @@ func (m MutableSecondaryIdx) DeleteEntry(ctx context.Context, key val.Tuple, val
 		return err
 	}
 
-	err = m.mut.Delete(ctx, currKey)
-	if err != nil {
-		return nil
-	}
-	return nil
+	return m.mut.Delete(ctx, currKey)
 }
 
 // Map returns the finalized prolly.Map of the underlying prolly.MutableMap.
diff --git a/go/libraries/doltcore/sqle/index/key_builder.go b/go/libraries/doltcore/sqle/index/key_builder.go
index 69e9d8d35f..824221977c 100644
--- a/go/libraries/doltcore/sqle/index/key_builder.go
+++ b/go/libraries/doltcore/sqle/index/key_builder.go
@@ -79,10 +79,16 @@ func (b SecondaryKeyBuilder) SecondaryKeyFromRow(ctx context.Context, k, v val.T
 	for to := range b.mapping {
 		from := b.mapping.MapOrdinal(to)
 		if from < b.split {
-			// the from field comes from the key tuple fields
+			// the "from" field comes from the key tuple fields
+			// NOTE: Because we are using Tuple.GetField and TupleBuilder.PutRaw, we are not
+			//       interpreting the tuple data at all and just copying the bytes. This should work
+			//       for primary keys since they are always represented in the secondary index exactly
+			//       as they are in the primary index, but for the value tuple, we need to interpret the
+			//       data so that we can transform StringAddrEnc fields from pointers to strings (i.e. for
+			//       prefix indexes) as well as custom handling for ZCell geometry fields.
 			b.builder.PutRaw(to, k.GetField(from))
 		} else {
-			// the from field comes from the value tuple fields
+			// the "from" field comes from the value tuple fields
 			from -= b.split
 
 			value, err := GetField(ctx, b.sch.GetValueDescriptor(), from, v, b.nodeStore)
diff --git a/go/libraries/doltcore/table/editor/creation/index.go b/go/libraries/doltcore/table/editor/creation/index.go
index 516c82f995..a80db936dd 100644
--- a/go/libraries/doltcore/table/editor/creation/index.go
+++ b/go/libraries/doltcore/table/editor/creation/index.go
@@ -202,8 +202,7 @@ func BuildSecondaryProllyIndex(ctx context.Context, vrw types.ValueReadWriter, n
 		if err != nil {
 			return nil, err
 		}
-		idxVal := val.EmptyTuple
-		if err = mut.Put(ctx, idxKey, idxVal); err != nil {
+		if err = mut.Put(ctx, idxKey, val.EmptyTuple); err != nil {
 			return nil, err
 		}
 	}
@@ -272,7 +271,6 @@ func BuildUniqueProllyIndex(ctx context.Context, vrw types.ValueReadWriter, ns t
 		if err != nil {
 			return nil, err
 		}
-		idxVal := val.EmptyTuple
 
 		if prefixDesc.HasNulls(idxKey) {
 			continue
@@ -289,7 +287,7 @@ func BuildUniqueProllyIndex(ctx context.Context, vrw types.ValueReadWriter, ns t
 			return nil, err
 		}
 
-		if err = mut.Put(ctx, idxKey, idxVal); err != nil {
+		if err = mut.Put(ctx, idxKey, val.EmptyTuple); err != nil {
 			return nil, err
 		}
 	}
diff --git a/go/store/prolly/mutable_map_write_test.go b/go/store/prolly/mutable_map_write_test.go
index 9830580954..a4b4b1c5bf 100644
--- a/go/store/prolly/mutable_map_write_test.go
+++ b/go/store/prolly/mutable_map_write_test.go
@@ -489,8 +489,7 @@ func testInternalNodeSplits(t *testing.T) {
 			bld.PutInt32(0, int32(j))
 			bld.PutInt32(1, int32(j))
 			key := bld.Build(sharedPool)
-			value := val.EmptyTuple
-			err = mut.Put(ctx, key, value)
+			err = mut.Put(ctx, key, val.EmptyTuple)
 			require.NoError(t, err)
 		}
 		pm, err = mut.Map(ctx)