Anonymous writes...

Why didn't Artemis break things off with Wally after she accepted the undercover mission in season two? Between her saying she couldn't have said yes fast enough when it came to accepting the mission and her knowing that Wally had wanted to leave the hero life behind, her ending things with him would have seemed to be the decent thing to do if she really cared about and wanted what was best for him. He appeared to be under the impression she was coming back to their life as it was when it was over while everything from her perspective said that was questionable at best.

The idea that Wally spent the last few months of his life being absolutely miserable, having to lie to his family & friends, and face his guilt about letting Paula think her daughter was dead as he looked after her for Artemis while she couldn't even be honest with him about what she wanted really gave me a negative view of their relationship. I didn't have any problem with her choosing to accept the mission or her wanting to return to the team, but I do think Wally absolutely deserved to know she was having doubts about the retirement and their life together. It seemed to be a case of her telling him it was something she needed to do when it was really something she wanted to do.

Was this simply a case of poor execution (at least in my opinion) on part of the show? Or, was Artemis intentionally stringing him along as a safety net while she waited to see how everything played out with the mission and the team once their manipulation became known like it seemed she did? I ended up thinking the Reach ultimately did Artemis a favor since his death allowed her to avoid having to do the work of ending things with him. That it would have been only a matter of time before the renewed specialness of their relationship and life together would have worn off for her again once things settled down if he had survived.