Mystic Muse reads The Silmarillion.

[Peelee]

Yeah. Breaking Bad was about the yolk of raging ego and pride coming out of the cracked facade of good citizen shell.

Terminal illness being the applied pressure sufficient to crack the equilibrium.

Not terminal illness per se, but the financial instability resulting from the terminal illness (not entirely, but not insignificantly, stemming from the inability to afford treatment for said illness, all but guaranteeing the "terminal" part to be sooner rather than later).