diff --git a/bin/fm-backend.sh b/bin/fm-backend.sh
index e8dc7fc559..ac4480d4e3 100644
--- a/bin/fm-backend.sh
+++ b/bin/fm-backend.sh
@@ -709,7 +709,6 @@ fm_backend_target_exists() {  # <backend> <target> [expected-label] [recorded-sc
   case "$backend" in
     tmux)
       fm_backend_source tmux || return 1
-      fm_backend_tmux_expected_label_matches "$target" "$expected_label" "$recorded_scoped_target" || return 1
       # The probe was `tmux display-message -p -t <target> '#{pane_id}'`, which
       # exits 0 for a window that no longer exists (tmux silently falls back to
       # the session's current window - see fm_backend_tmux_target_exists), so
@@ -718,12 +717,20 @@ fm_backend_target_exists() {  # <backend> <target> [expected-label] [recorded-sc
       # fm-teardown.sh refuse to release the task forever, leaking its worktree
       # lease.
       #
-      # The probe used to fall back to the recorded scoped target for a
-      # @window-id. That indirection is gone: the guard above already proves a
-      # @window-id resolves AND that the session and window it resolves to are
-      # the recorded ones, which is strictly stronger than probing the recorded
-      # session:window on its own.
-      fm_backend_tmux_target_exists "$target"
+      # ONE tmux round-trip either way. When the caller supplies an expectation
+      # the identity guard already RESOLVES the target to prove that identity -
+      # exactly for a session:window, and by reading the id back for a
+      # @window-id - so its success is itself the existence proof and a second
+      # probe would only re-ask a question already answered. With no
+      # expectation there is nothing to verify and the probe is the whole check.
+      # This path runs in a bounded retry loop in fm-teardown.sh's
+      # managed_endpoint_is_gone, so a redundant probe there is a doubled
+      # process spawn per iteration on a machine that may already be loaded.
+      if [ -n "$expected_label" ] || [ -n "$recorded_scoped_target" ]; then
+        fm_backend_tmux_expected_label_matches "$target" "$expected_label" "$recorded_scoped_target"
+      else
+        fm_backend_tmux_target_exists "$target"
+      fi
       ;;
     herdr)
       fm_backend_source herdr || return 1
diff --git a/tests/fm-teardown-suite.sh b/tests/fm-teardown-suite.sh
index b97a1ef9ca..8a0bfaf9f6 100644
--- a/tests/fm-teardown-suite.sh
+++ b/tests/fm-teardown-suite.sh
@@ -6415,6 +6415,13 @@ test_secondmate_registry_updates_are_locked_and_literal() {
   case_dir=$(make_case secondmate-registry-locked-literal)
   id='foo.bar'
   prepare_secondmate_home_fixture "$case_dir" "$id"
+  # This case is about registry locking, and a secondmate teardown legitimately
+  # requires an already-quiesced endpoint, so model one the way the rest of this
+  # suite does. It previously read as gone only by accident: the stub's
+  # list-windows answers with a hardcoded fm-task-x1, which never matched this
+  # task's fm-foo.bar window, so the bare-name lookup missed it whatever the
+  # live marker said.
+  rm -f "$case_dir/fakebin/.tmux-live"
   fm_write_meta "$case_dir/state/$id.meta" \
     "window=fm-$id" \
     "tmux_session_target=firstmate:fm-$id" \
diff --git a/tests/secondmate-helpers.sh b/tests/secondmate-helpers.sh
index f2a6f3568c..7ac91b39d7 100644
--- a/tests/secondmate-helpers.sh
+++ b/tests/secondmate-helpers.sh
@@ -54,7 +54,15 @@ case "${1:-}" in
       prev=$arg
       format=$arg
     done
-    if [ -n "$target" ] && [ -f "$FM_FAKE_TMUX_LOG.killed" ] && grep -qxF "$target" "$FM_FAKE_TMUX_LOG.killed"; then
+    # Compare against the killed log in tmux's PLAIN target spelling. Firstmate
+    # resolves a window with tmux's exact-match syntax ("=session:=window") so a
+    # name can never resolve by fnmatch, and real tmux treats that spelling and
+    # the plain one identically - both fail once the window is killed. This stub
+    # matches the recorded kill-window target literally, so without normalising
+    # the "=" markers it would report a killed window as still alive.
+    probe_target=$(printf '%s' "$target" | tr -d '=')
+    if [ -n "$probe_target" ] && [ -f "$FM_FAKE_TMUX_LOG.killed" ] \
+      && grep -qxF "$probe_target" "$FM_FAKE_TMUX_LOG.killed"; then
       exit 1
     fi
     case "$format" in