Cara Maria Sorbello is minding her own business in “The Challenge” house when Nicole Zanatta sees her talking to Ace Amerson and is all like, “He’s MY friend.”
Like an angry toddler, she goes up to Cara Maria and says out of nowhere, “You’re so salty, it’s sick. Do you want a bag of chips or something?” Cara Maria replies by telling Nicole that her last vote to have Kam Williams go against Tina Barta was dumb. The next chance she gets, she’s going after Nicole’s star.
“I just want you to keep my name out of your mouth,” Nicole tells her. Cara Maria responds by yelling Nicole’s name over and over again.
Jay Mitchell feels caught in the middle because he’s friends with both Cara Maria and Nicole. “At this point, I’m worried that they’re just going to blow each other up and everyone’s going to lose,” he tells the cameras.
Laurel Stucky, who can’t decide if she’s friends with Cara Maria or not, is talking smack about her to Flora Alekseyeva. She’s mad that Cara Maria called Nicole an idiot and lists all the other people she pissed off in “The Challenge: All Stars” Season 4.
“There’s really only one person in this house that thinks that they’re better than anyone else and it’s Cara,” Laurel says in a confessional. “The fact that you’re going around like you think you own this game. You don’t. And I’m going to prove that you don’t.”
Run the plank
The next daily challenge is “Run the Plank” which is played in pairs of their own choosing. There are big balls suspended over the water and the players have to climb a ladder, run down a narrow walkway, jump toward the ball, and bring it down towards the water. Each time they do so bring their puzzle piece closer to the water, which they have to unwind through a maze and place on a board. The fastest team wins.
Oh, there’s a twist. TJ Lavin announces that it’s a girls’ elimination AGAIN. The only one who is happy is Cara Maria because she wants to go into elimination and get her star back.
In the first heat, Cara Maria is teamed up with Ace, Kam with her hubs Leroy Garrett, Veronica Portillo and Jay, and Flora with Steve Meinke.
Immediately, Flora starts hyperventilating about going up the ladder and Ryan Kehoe is literally crawling across the walkway. Leroy, Steve, and Ace do okay but Kam can’t even bring herself to do go across the plank. She and Leroy DQ.
The next heat consists of Laurel and Derek Chavez, Averey Tressler and Adam Larson, and Nicole and Jay. They do much better than the first group but Jay notices that Nicole is not performing her best, which is weird considering she’s a firefighter and can race up ladders.
It turns out, Nicole is throwing the challenge so that Laurel can win and get a star. Laurel and Derek win.
The women in the losing group are Cara Maria, Kam, Vanessa, and Flora. This is exactly what Laurel wanted and she’s going to do everything to get Cara Maria in the arena.
Take out a threat
During deliberations, Adam immediately throws Cara Maria and Kam’s names in the ring. He wants to take out the two strongest players, which is a smart move. Averey does the same but Jay points out that if Cara Maria wins, she’s going to take Nicole’s star. The only way to prevent that is to not let Cara Maria go into the elimination.
They think that if Cara Maria and Kam go in, Laurel is going to throw herself in to go against Cara Maria. Nicole wants Laurel to get her star and is positive she’ll win. “I’m not losing this bet,” she tells the cameras. In the end, the middle group decides on Cara Maria and Kam.
Leroy is worried that Laurel will decide not to go against Cara Maria, putting Kam at risk of going home. “Something just doesn’t feel right,” he says.
Laurel Stucky backs out
In the arena, TJ explains that the game tonight is “Caged In.” There are two big mud pits with a cage holding balls over it. The players have to manipulate the balls from the mud pit into the hole, grab them, and put them into the basket. The first to get all 10 balls in wins.
This is Laurel’s big moment to come down and go against Cara Maria. She thinks really hard and says, “This isn’t exactly the game that I was hoping for.” Cara Maria smirks and Nicole looks big mad.
“Uh, I’m going to pass,” Laurel tells TJ. Everyone is like WTF, especially Kam. She calls Laurel out for backing out of their deal. “I was a woman of my word. And then, we said if, you know, if this was to happen, then you would go against Cara,” Kam says. Laurel has nothing to say.
Kam and Cara Maria race inside the mud pit. Kam immediately gets two balls in but Cara Maria’s strategy is to get all her balls close to the end first. She quickly catches up.
It’s a tight race but Cara Maria takes the lead and wins the game with Kam needing two more balls. Leroy comes down to give his wifey a big hug. She’s not salty about losing to Cara Maria because she’s a beast. Even the guys are scared to go in against her in the final.
TJ reminds the players yet again that they need to get their stars ASAP. It sounds like there’s one more elimination before they can and this might have been Laurel’s last chance for her if next week is a men’s elimination.
