diff --git a/src/buildstream/_frontend/cli.py b/src/buildstream/_frontend/cli.py
index 89475b5a1..e827d18ae 100644
--- a/src/buildstream/_frontend/cli.py
+++ b/src/buildstream/_frontend/cli.py
@@ -649,7 +649,7 @@ def show(app, elements, deps, except_, order, format_):
 
         # Don't spend time interrogating the cache if we don't need to show element state
         if need_state:
-            app.stream.query_cache(dependencies)
+            app.stream.query_cache(dependencies, need_state=True)
 
         if order == "alpha":
             dependencies = sorted(dependencies)
diff --git a/src/buildstream/_stream.py b/src/buildstream/_stream.py
index 2266b27f0..61462ed2c 100644
--- a/src/buildstream/_stream.py
+++ b/src/buildstream/_stream.py
@@ -190,13 +190,16 @@ def load_selection(
     #    sources_of_cached_elements (bool): True to query the source cache for elements with a cached artifact
     #    only_sources (bool): True to only query the source cache
     #
-    def query_cache(self, elements, *, sources_of_cached_elements=False, only_sources=False):
+    def query_cache(self, elements, *, sources_of_cached_elements=False, only_sources=False, need_state=False):
         # It doesn't make sense to combine these flags
         assert not sources_of_cached_elements or not only_sources
 
         with self._context.messenger.simple_task("Query cache", silent_nested=True) as task:
-            # Enqueue complete build plan as this is required to determine `buildable` status.
-            plan = list(_pipeline.dependencies(elements, _Scope.ALL))
+            if need_state:
+                # Enqueue complete build plan as this is required to determine `buildable` status.
+                plan = list(_pipeline.dependencies(elements, _Scope.ALL))
+            else:
+                plan = elements
 
             if self._context.remote_cache_spec:
                 # Parallelize cache queries if a remote cache is configured