It’s been a rough go for Mary Zheng so far on Survivor 48. The substance abuse counselor and water enthusiast from Philadelphia was excited to hit the island running — and swimming — on day one, but it’s been nothing but bad news ever since.

Not only did Mary have to endure two land challenges in a row to start the season, but she found herself completely on the outs of the Vula tribe after she aligned with Stephenie Berger, only to watch Steph get voted out by the rest of the team. Even worse, Mary put her vote on Sai, who openly told us how much she loves to hold grudges. Not the best start!

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But in an exclusive deleted scene from this week’s episode, which can be watched above, we see Mary receive what just might be her first good news in the game. The scene take place on day five. Since the Vula tribe does not have the lightning fast Probsty5G Wi-Fi setup that Civa installed (or at least Civa did not share the Dig48 password) they must rely on Tree Mail for all their communication with the outside world. But the Tree Mail received on this day is music to Mary’s sadly not-yet-waterlogged ears.

The scene begins with Kevin reading the challenge clue to the tribe: “Jump in, even if you can’t swim, it’s do or dive today. Strategies can change on a whim and tonight another goes away.” Well, at least he tries to read it while Mary intermittently interrupts him with various hoots and hollers of joy upon learning of the contest.

“So this morning we get Tree Mail,” Mary explains later in a confessional interview. “And we all go together. I’m elated because when Kevin reads it, it says that we’re going to be in water. And water challenges were one of the reasons that I wanted to apply for the show.”

Mary’s musings are interrupted by some very awkward tribe dynamics as the players try to decipher the meaning behind the message and what may await them at that day’s immunity competition. Will it be swimming? Rowing? Jumping? Diving? All or none of the above? The tribe actually breaks the Tree Mail down to the molecular level in their attempts to decode what seems to be a pretty easily decoded communication.

“We’re all trying to figure out what exactly it means,” Mary notes to the camera. “All I care about is that it’s water and I’m going to be in my element. So far we haven’t won any challenges, so I think this time for once I can take the lead and get my tribe ahead.”

While Mary didn’t exactly end up doing that in challenge, she more then held her own when she took on the first hero leg against David Kinne and Shauhin Davari — keeping her tribe in the game until Cedrek McFadden later gave it away. (NOTE: Cedrek fell back into the ocean twice in the time it took me to type this parenthetical.)

Check out the full exclusive deleted scene for yourself at the top of the article and make sure to read our full Survivor 48 episode recap.