There's 1 Big Question You Should Be Asking About Rita On The CW's ‘Nancy Drew’

The CW's Nancy Drew has only just begun, but it's not shying away from giving audiences a big heaping dose of spookiness from the start. In only the first three episodes, the show has introduced a legendary ghost who haunts the town, a bloody ritual that possibly carries a curse, and now, in Episode 3, possibly another supernatural being. After the latest installment of the show, fans are wondering, is Rita a ghost on The CW's Nancy Drew? The new character appeared and disappeared under mysterious circumstances. Warning: Spoilers for Season 1 Episode 3 of Nancy Drew follow.

In Episode 3, George (Leah Lewis) met a woman named Rita (Zibby Allen) who was looking for a job at The Claw diner. However, George had some more pertinent things to worry about, like narrowly avoiding death. All throughout the episode, George had several brushes with death, including light fixtures and spears falling from the ceiling right near her head. Bess (Maddison Jaizani) and Ace (Alex Saxon) were convinced George had been cursed, and even though George said she doesn't believe in that kind of stuff, it seems her coworkers might be on to something.

In Episode 2, George participated in Horseshoe Bay's annual Summer Festival bucket tradition. The tradition dictates that you leave a bucket of water in front of your door on the last night of summer, and if it turns to blood when you knock it over, you're fated to die within the year. ICYMI: George's bucket was pretty bloody. Even though she insisted she was merely pranked, there was a lot of evidence in this episode that made it seem like some spooky spirits wanted to claim her... and one of those spirits might have been Rita.

Thanks to the strange accidents that kept happening — and Rita's prodding — George found herself in the center of a salt ring, trying to rid herself of the potential curse. Rita ominously told her, "Perhaps the spirits want a life. And you've already been marked. Your friends have done the best they could to protect you. But the protection only works if you believe." Then, just as Rita instructed George not to move from the salt circle, a lighting fixture fell down right where she was sitting. Luckily, Nick (Tunji Kasim) was there to pull George to safety, but if he hadn't been there to help her, George would've been right in the line of the crash, and the fire it started. Was Rita trying to get George killed?

Adding to the mystery surrounding Rita, after Nick rescued George, the young woman completely disappeared. All of this seemed like very ghostly behavior, but what really seals the deal on this theory is what happened next: After Rita's exit, George found an old newspaper article from 1975 that said Rita had been decapitated in a boating accident.

So yeah, Rita has probably been dead for a while now. When you think about it, the fact that Rita could have been alive in the 1970s makes sense, given the fact that earlier in the episode she told Bess she used to be a roller-skating waitress and Bess said she loves "retro" restaurants. Well, if Rita is actually a ghost from the 1970s, then her roller-skating job wasn't so much retro as it was an actual trend from her time period. The creators of Nancy Drew have made it clear that the ghosts on the show are real, so believing Rita is a ghost is actually a pretty safe bet.

Season 1 of Nancy Drew continues on Wednesday, Oct. 30, at 9 p.m. ET on The CW.