Chapter 5 is narrated by the older woman from the plane (seat 4D), reflecting on the incident after the fact. She acknowledges being told she pointed at passengers while repeating the phrase "Fate won't be fought," and was initially skeptical until she saw a photograph published in newspapers showing her pointing theatrically. She notes, with some embarrassment, that she looked like she was playing King Lear, though she admits her hair looked nice in the photo.

She explains that "fate won't be fought" was her mother's phrase, not her own. Her mother frequently expressed deterministic sentiments such as "You can't escape destiny" and "It was meant to be." The narrator recalls being told at a dinner party in 1984 that her mother was a "determinist." A bearded university lecturer at the party delivered a mini-lecture on determinism after the narrator accidentally shared a deeply personal story about her mother—something she tends to do when nervous and drinking too much.

The bearded man explained that determinism holds that everything that happens is "causally inevitable"—every decision and action is caused by preceding events, actions, or situations. He illustrated this with the example of a murderer whose childhood, genes, brain chemistry, socioeconomic situation, and circumstances all lead him inevitably to murder. When another guest objected that the murderer had free will, the bearded man declared himself a "hard determinist" who does not believe in free will.

The chapter ends with the narrator posing a philosophical question she wishes she could ask the bearded man: if free will doesn't exist and all actions are inevitable, is one still required to apologize for them? This question implicitly connects to her own situation on the plane and whether she bears responsibility for her predictions.