Warning - This article contains spoilers for Daredevil: Born Again Season 1, Episode 8.
Daredevil: Born Again pulled back the curtain on who was behind Foggy Nelson's death. Season 1, Episode 8 of the hit Disney+ series revealed that Wilson Fisk's wife, Vanessa, ordered Foggy's killing and employed supervillain Bullseye to do the deed.
Elden Henson's longtime Marvel character was shot dead in the street to kick the new R-rated series off, setting things off with a bang and serving as the catalyst for the journey that Charlie Cox's Matt Murdock would go on from there (read more about Foggy's Death here).
This came to a head at Willson and Vanessa Fisk's Black and White Gala in Episode 8 (subtitled "Isle of Joy"), as Murdock pieced together what went into the death of his former vocational collaborator and best friend.
Matt initially suspected Foggy's death resulted from a revenge-fulled conquest by Bullseye, following Matt, Foggy, and Karen bringing the character to justice in Daredevil Season 3. However, with the Fisks' Black and White Gala in his sights, Matt's idea of the night Foggy was shot quickly began to change.
About midway through Episode 8, the super-powered lawyer sat down to enjoy a drink at the iconic Josie's Bar right before he showed up to face Wilson Fisk head-on. It is during this brief moment of reflection that Matt begins to piece things together.
Barkeep Josie tells Matt to enjoy a drink with her and Daredevil's keeper at the NYPD, Cherry, when she pulls out the now-infamous bottle of O'Melveny's. This was a drink Foggy used to sip on in moments of celebration, notably when he had won a case.
Josie laments that Foggy was drinking the whiskey on the night he died, which was peculiar because Foggy had not yet won the case he was working on but was seemingly so confident it was a done deal that he drank early.
Foggy was trying to connect the mysterious Benny to the Fisks and Red Hook at the time. This sends Matt spiraling, realizing that the Fisks took Foggy down a year ago and that he needs to confront one of them, even if it means doing so at their black-tie night of drinking and dancing.
Matt, maybe justifiably, begins the night thinking Wilson Fisk was the one behind Foggy's death. However, that changes when he eavesdrops on a conversation between Kingpin and Vanessa about the episode's freak escape of Benjamin Poindexter (aka Bullseye).
As the new New York City mayor and his wife are made aware of the career criminal's escape, Vanessa asks that she talk to Wilson alone, and her heart quickens, tipping off that it was not Kingpin who orchestrated Foggy's untimely demise, but Vanessa.
Why Did Vanessa Have Foggy Killed?
A specific reason for why Vanessa Fisk had Foggy Nelson killed in Daredevil: Born Again was not expressly given in the series itself (as of yet), but it was heavily alluded to.
When Matt makes the O'Melveny's connection at Josie's, he realizes at least a piece of what was going on that led to Foggy's eventual death.
As Charlie Cox's Marvel character explained in the bar scene, O'Melveny's was only reserved for celebrations. Foggy had felt so confident in the case he was working on that he was ready to celebrate early.
The case in question connected eventual Bullseye victim Benny to the Fisks and Red Hook (an area of the New York harbor where the Fisks had housed their criminal empire).
However, Foggy would never get to blow the whistle on Kingpin and Vanessa, as Bullseye was ultimately hired to kill both Foggy and Benny to ensure word of their criminal dealings do not get out.
And, seeing as when the beginning of Daredevil: Born Again takes place, it would make sense that Vanessa was the one to put out the kill order. Born Again's blood-soaked opening scene takes place a year before the rest of the series when Vincent D'Onofrio's Kingpin was away (read more about where Wilson Fisk was before Born Again here).
Seeing as Wilson Fisk was off tending to other things before the events of the R-rated Disney+ series, Vanessa was left to run the family's criminal empire on her own.
That would mean it was ultimately her decision to kill Foggy so as not to jeopardize the future of the Fisk criminal cabal.
Now that Wilson is back, Vanessa and her newly-minted mayor husband are running things together (with Wilson doing it from the mayor's desk and Vanessa in the underground), but Foggy's death was before this happened, meaning it was Vanessa calling the shots.
Going forward, this 'Vanessa wanting Foggy dead' reveal is going to be key to setting Born Again's iconic hero and villain duo on a collision course toward one another.
Even though Matt was shot in foiling Bullseye's assassination attempt on the Fisk matriarch, he will surely survive and want Vanessa to face justice for Foggy's death (whether that be at the hands of Matt Murdock or Daredevil).
Someone who will likely not take too kindly to these efforts to bring Vanessa down is Wilson Fisk himself, once again putting Kingpin and Daredevil in opposite corners of the same superhero story boxing ring.
The Season 1 finale of Daredevil: Born Again streams on Disney+ on Tuesday, 15 at 9 p.m. ET.
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