After the Hare Krishna gave Alex Browning a booklet, Valerie orders him to leave her students alone and told Alex to move along. Later, she breaks up a small fight between Tod and George Waggner. She also asks where Billy Hitchcock was as the other students boarded the plane. After Alex has a premonition that the plane would explode, he panics, and a fight erupts between him and Carter Horton. The Co-pilot kicks off the students who were in the aisle at the moment, and Valerie volunteers to stay behind and look after the students who were kicked off. She convinces her co-worker, Larry Murnau to get back on the plane, but after the plane explodes, she becomes extremely guilt ridden over his death
At the memorial, she snaps at Alex, who she held personally responsible for the plane explosion. Two days later, she goes to a coffee shop where she witnesses a bus suddenly hit and run over Terry Chaney. Following these events, She decides to leave town to restart her life
