diff --git a/src/components/ha-markdown-element.ts b/src/components/ha-markdown-element.ts
index ec89e5ff21..825ad9a004 100644
--- a/src/components/ha-markdown-element.ts
+++ b/src/components/ha-markdown-element.ts
@@ -99,10 +99,7 @@ class HaMarkdownElement extends ReactiveElement {
       }
     );
 
-    render(
-      elements.map((e) => h(unsafeHTML(e))),
-      this.renderRoot
-    );
+    render(h(unsafeHTML(elements.join(""))), this.renderRoot);
 
     this._resize();
 
diff --git a/src/components/ha-markdown.ts b/src/components/ha-markdown.ts
index f5627ef118..04a18ec52b 100644
--- a/src/components/ha-markdown.ts
+++ b/src/components/ha-markdown.ts
@@ -25,11 +25,11 @@ export class HaMarkdown extends LitElement {
 
   @property({ type: Boolean }) public cache = false;
 
-  @query("ha-markdown-element") private _markdownElement!: ReactiveElement;
+  @query("ha-markdown-element") private _markdownElement?: ReactiveElement;
 
   protected async getUpdateComplete() {
     const result = await super.getUpdateComplete();
-    await this._markdownElement.updateComplete;
+    await this._markdownElement?.updateComplete;
     return result;
   }