Odd issue with Join node

For some reason, this one Join node won't Join the payloads. Here are a few screenshots:

Since I can only do 2 screenshots since I'm new here, here's my current join node config
Mode: Manual
Combine each: msg.payload
to create: a merged object
Everything else is left blank in order to complete the join with msg.complete

Currently it spits it out in 2 different messages despite only passing the msg.complete property in one of the messages like so.
image

Now, if I set "to create" within the join node to "an Array" opposed to a merged object, it creates this:
image

But I would much rather combine the objects instead of having an index of numbers, does anyone have any ideas on why this might be happening? For reference, this isn't happening to any other join nodes in my flow; it's just this one, and I have no idea why.

Here's a few things I've tried
Deleting the join node and recreating it
Verifying I am in fact only passing the msg.complete property once (Verified by creating a change node to delete it anywhere else)
Restarted the server just in case
Restarting my browser

The messages you are trying to join should not have the same msg.topic (or whatever other msg property is specified as the key).

I'm doing a merged object, not a key/value Object, I couldn't post the pic in my OP
image

Yes I missed that, sorry.

The first message shown in your debug output does not include the property sent == true?

I can't see any reason for the behaviour you describe.

Can you make a simple flow with inject nodes to create the two messages and the join node?
If the same thing happens, share it with us.