Daredevil: Born Again Reveals Who Was Behind Foggy’s Death — Here’s How It Happened in the Comics

[Warning: This article contains spoilers for Daredevil: Born Again episode 8.] “Who’s the predator, and who’s the prey?” That’s the question in Tuesday’s episode of Daredevil: Born Again, which sees Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox) get to the bottom of another question: Who killed Foggy Nelson? Former FBI agent turned assassin Benjamin “Dex” Poindexter/Bullseye (Wilson Bethel) gunned down Foggy (Elden Henson) outside Josie’s Bar in what seemed like an open and shut case of settling old scores with the trio of Nelson, Murdock & Page, but Matt has had a nagging suspicion that someone ordered Foggy’s death.

For his rampage at Josie’s one year earlier, Dex was convicted of 11 counts of murder in the first degree and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. But when Mayor Wilson Fisk (Vincent D’Onofrio) has Dex transferred from protective custody into gen pop at Ryker’s Island — a “death sentence,” notes retired cop Cherry (Clark Johnson) — Matt suspects the supposedly former Kingpin of Crime is tying up loose ends.

At the boarded-up Josie’s, the eponymous bartender (Susan Varon) goes to pour Matt a shot of O’Melveny’s, the final round that Foggy never got to finish. Matt has a realization: “He knew he was gonna win and somebody silenced him.” Foggy was celebrating with a round of O’Melveny’s just before the phone call from his client “Dumb Benny” Cafaro, who was caught on camera stealing 20 cases of expensive wine from a bonded warehouse at New York’s Red Hook pier.

RELATED: Is Foggy Really Dead in Daredevil: Born Again?

Meanwhile, Mayor Fisk tells wife Vanessa (Ayelet Zurer) that he’s secured both public and private funding for their Red Hook Port project that has been at the center of her dealings throughout the season. Fisk credits Vanessa with handling their business with New York’s Five Families during his absence (between Hawkeye and Echo), including eliminating Luca (Patrick Murney) and then her affair partner Adam (Lou Taylor Pucci).

As the plus one of his girlfriend and Fisk couple counselor Dr. Heather Glenn (Margarita Levieva), a tuxedoed Matt attends the Black and White Ball benefiting the Red Hook Port project to confront Fisk. But as he uses his heightened hearing to eavesdrop, Matt finally learns the truth: Vanessa Fisk, First Lady of New York, had Foggy killed.

Matt knows that Vanessa was in charge of the Fisk crime empire while her husband was away, and he knows it was Vanessa who ordered Bullseye’s hit on Foggy. “I know it was you,” Matt tells Vanessa. “I just don’t know why.”

Before Matt can get an answer to his question — “Why?” — he hears the clicking sounds of a sniper’s rifle. Dex escaped prison and is perched on the balcony above the ballroom with Mayor Fisk in his sights. Dex squeezes the trigger just as Matt moves Fisk out of the way, and the episode ends with Matt bleeding out from the bullet lodged in his shoulder.

Did Foggy die in the comics?

Daredevil: Born Again is mostly pulling from the Charles Soule and Chip Zdarsky-penned Daredevil comic book runs, which had everything from Mayor Fisk and Muse to the Anti-Vigilante Task Force. However, there’s echoes of Ed Brubaker-Michael Lark’s 2006 comic run: in “The Devil in Cell-Block D,” Matt Murdock was jailed at Ryker’s while awaiting trial after a tabloid newspaper outed his secret identity as Daredevil.

Matt’s best friend turned defense attorney, Foggy, was apparently stabbed to death by inmates when a corrupt guard locked him into a cell during a visit to Ryker’s. Daredevil #82 ended with a panel implying Wilson Fisk, a.k.a. Kingpin (who was also behind bars), arranged Foggy’s murder, but Matt later used his superhuman senses to determine that Fisk, in fact, had nothing to do with the hit. (In Born Again, Matt heard Foggy’s fading heartbeat as he died and, during a diner sit down with the mayor, listened as Fisk denied any involvement.)

Who killed Foggy in the comics?

As it turned out, Foggy didn’t die after being shanked in Ryker’s. He was revived in an ambulance and then whisked away by the FBI, who put Foggy into witness protection under the assumed name “Everett Williams” to protect him from the mob. Matt escaped from prison and tracked down the person who had Foggy killed, unaware that his best friend was still alive.

2006’s Daredevil #92 eventually revealed that the mysterious string-puller was Vanessa Fisk, Kingpin’s wife. Vanessa told Matt that she was dying, and that she suspected that her unexplainable terminal illness was her penance for murdering her son, Richard Fisk. (She shot her son dead because he betrayed their family and nearly got the Kingpin killed in an attempted coup.)

Blaming Daredevil and the Kingpin for the cycle of violence that destroyed their family, a vengeful Vanessa manipulated events from behind the scenes after Matt was arrested by the FBI. She offered to use her husband’s connections and blackmail ledgers to make his outing in the press and federal indictment go away if he agreed to get Fisk out of prison, but Matt refused to be a pawn in her twisted game.

Ultimately, Vanessa exonerated Matt when she leaked evidence that he was framed in an elaborate setup by the FBI. Matt later learned that Vanessa faked Foggy’s death when he heard his best friend’s still-beating heart.

The Daredevil: Born Again season 1 finale airs Tuesday, April 15 on Disney+.