As "Girls" fans know, the third season of "Gilrs" ended last night, and most "Girls" fans probably don't want or need one of those "Girls" recaps that recaps everything they saw on said "Girls'" finale. 

You know the kind of recap: Hannah got into the MFA program at the Writer's Workshop in Iowa, and she now has thoughts of becoming "bicoastal;" or that Marnie has invaded the emotional territory, so to speak, of another woman; or that Shoshanna wants back with Ray, etc.

That kind of recap. Let's instead talk about  Louise Lasser. Lasser played Beadie the last couple of episodes -- the wheelchair-bound photographer who landed upon Jessa as an assistant because she understood, perhaps intuitively, that Jessa would be the one best able to secure her the necessary dose of pills for an assisted suicide -- which poor Jessa would then be manipulated into administering.

Almost happened, and -- in the  best scene last night -- Beadie had a change of mind.

"CALL 911! I DON'T WANT TO DIE..."

Lasser is easily my favorite cameo of the season, possibly of the last three. She's an inspired choice, but best of all recalls a character, "Mary Hartman,"  who in some ways anticipates Hannah -- her obsessions, fears, naivete and angst. "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman" arrived at a time on television when Susan Harris' "Soap" stood the conventions of the business of TV on its nose, by poking  fun at one of the core conventions of TV (the soap), while Norman Lear's "MH, MH" was a much sharper stick -- something that attempted to prod viewers' complacency about the box they spent countless hours with. ("Soap," in fact arrived later.) 

Lasser -- with her pigtails and her slightly vacant yet omniscient gaze -- was perfect as the housewife who Wondered What it Was All About. "MH, MH"  lasted but a season: Viewers had gone far too long on a diet of commercials to understand (or perhaps care) that they had been brainwashed into buying something that they didn't really need, and not just products but ideas.

The show was actually syndicated (I guess a network wouldn't touch it) but even so-called "independent stations" couldn't air something for too long that insulted both viewers and sponsors and it was gone quickly. But hardly forgotten.

It clearly made a huge impact, for it's hard to imagine that -- with its arch tone, and subversive lines, and air of quiet desperation -- a young woman named Lena Dunham would one day watch and be on some level inspired.

I don't know how Dunham chose Lasser -- once married, you may distantly recall, to Woody Allen -- for the role of Beadie, but the results were inspired.

Here's the first episode of "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman," from many, many years ago. And, if you're still with me here, check out this fascinating interview from last December in The Toast.

Meanwhile, let's go back to the first season of "Saturday Night Live,' which she closed out with a classic sketch. Go to the end of the show -- Lasser puts on a remarkable and moving performance.

This actor of the first rank has led quite a life.