The 1960s cult-classic television series Astronauticals functions as a motif of Redefining Family Legacy and Personal Fate. The shared imaginative world of the science-fiction program offers AJ and Noah a respite from their painful family lives and plays an important role in their creative and romantic bond. For AJ, her time spent watching Astronauticals reruns during her shifts at Reel World is “her only escape” from the suffocating script of her Gladstone life (10), while for Noah, it provides a crucial refuge from the grief of his mother’s illness. He admits that “Nauticals is basically all [he] can stand to watch” (21), revealing the show’s importance as his personal sanctuary, a world where the rules of his tragic family legacy don’t apply. By studying the show, they develop a shared language and a mutual trust that forms the bedrock of their connection, allowing them to collaborate creatively and connect emotionally in ways they can’t manage in their real lives. The improvisational nature of the show represents a space of pure potential, separate from the burdens of the main characters’ pasts.

The novel’s title, Into the Blue, is taken directly from the Astronauticals theme song, which describes a journey “Out of the black, / And into the blue” (71). This lyric encapsulates the novel’s central trajectory, positioning the show’s imaginative promise as the ultimate destination for two characters seeking to rewrite their inherited fates and create a new world for themselves. As professional actors, AJ and Noah pay forward the strength and hope that Astronauticals brought them by expanding the show’s lore and legacy through their work on Into the Blue as well as their engagement with the Blue Coats. Their storytelling inspires fans to claim greater agency in their own lives, as demonstrated by the fan who tells AJ that Ana gave her the courage to confront her feuding parents. Through the expansive vision of the fictional sci-fi series, Brodie reminds her readers that they can rewrite their own fates.