Laurel & Cara Maria: Their History Coming Into Season 40

If you’re a longtime Challenge fan, you’ll know that Laurel and Cara Maria have a relationship that’s filled with ups and downs. The girls met nearly 15 years ago while filming Fresh Meat 2, and they’ve clashed many times throughout the years, but they’ve also had a lot of good moments together.

Coming into Battle of the Eras, it seemed like they were going to try to work together, but it looks like that effort is going to be out the window on episode 5.

If you’ve forgotten their story, or simply need a recap, he’s are the fast facts. But remember, these are just the moments we saw on TV (with a few other public facts thrown into the mix). There are a lot of moments that happened off-camera that Challenge fans don’t know about.

Fresh Meat 2

Cara Maria left this season early, so we really don’t know much about their relationship during this time. However, we do know that Laurel and Cara were the only two girls that could do pull-ups during the combine. There’s also a rumor that Darrell originally picked Laurel as his partner but changed his mind and selected Cara Maria. Then, Laurel won the first daily challenge with Kenny and they voted in Darrell & Cara Maria, but this was more likely an attack on the Fresh Meat 1 winner than his rookie partner.

Cutthroat

This is the season that really laid out the foundation of Cara Maria & Laurel’s rivalry. During the season, Laurel wanted to weed out the weaker players on the grey team, and she considered Cara Maria to be one of them. While Cara Maria was the first girl on the grey team to go into a Gulag, she won and came back. We also saw Cara Maria enter a relationship with Abram during this season.

Due to this romance with the perceived team leader, Laurel thought Cara Maria was getting preferential treatment as the game progressed. She continued to target Cara Maria — calling her a JV player on a varsity team — but Cara made it to the final. During that final, Abram and Sarah (Laurel’s good friend) were medically disqualified but Cara Maria made it to the finish line with Laurel.

Rivals

At the start of this season, Laurel and Cara Maria still had tension from Cutthroat. At first, they didn’t really talk, making communication a major barrier on the team. So, it took a while before they built any team dynamic, but once they started to get on the same page they performed well.

As the season progressed, we saw Laurel respect Cara Maria more. While Laurel was friends with many of the veterans in the game, she wound up defending Cara Maria at the end of the season when people like Wes and Jenn were picking on her and making her cry. By the time the duo made it to the final, they had established trust and were serious contenders to win. They ended up in second place, but they left with a friendship that extended beyond the show.

Free Agents

Coming into this season, it was clear that Laurel and Cara Maria were friends and had spent significant time together outside of the show. They were a bit of a power duo, but Cara Maria was very close with Laurel. Meanwhile, Laurel wanted to entertain other alliances. Not necessarily at the expense of working with Cara Maria, but she didn’t want to only rely on Cara Maria. Eventually, Laurel started to become friends with Jessica and it upset Cara Maria that Laurel wouldn’t just work with her.

Jessica was still voted into elimination, but at the draw, Cara Maria flipped the kill card. During the game of Balls In, Laurel was cheering for her newfound friend Jessica over her longterm friend Cara. While Cara Maria won the elimination, she also sprained her hand. During Cara Maria’s time at the doctor, Laurel said she “didn’t care” if Cara Maria came back to the game — though she did eventually return in a cast. Initially, Laurel refused to apologize for not supporting Cara Maria, but the girls ended up in the next elimination. Laurel easily won in Wrecking Wall (remember, Cara’s hand was hurt), but she did apologize before her friend went home.

Invasion of the Champions

This season, the two girls came into the game as friends, again, and they seemed to be civil for the most part. However, this is also the season where Nicole entered the picture. Nicole made it very clear that she had an initial attraction to Cara Maria, and Cara Maria (who was single) didn’t mind flirting.

Laurel eliminated Cara Maria in Balls In, but Cara Maria took it in stride and paid compliments to Laurel. However, Nicole came crawling back to Laurel after Cara Maria left. Then, Laurel and Nicole’s relationship really developed as the season progressed. At the reunion, it was revealed that Cara Maria slipped into Nicole’s DMs once filming wrapped for the season. She heard Nicole and Laurel were hooking up, but Laurel never told Cara this directly (like friends normally would). So, Cara wanted to get answers from Nicole. However, Laurel viewed this as sneaky, conniving behavior and felt betrayed that Cara wouldn’t talk to her directly.

Vendettas

During this season, Laurel and Nicole had just broken up. Cara Maria and Nicole briefly kissed. It wasn’t serious, but Laurel found out. Cara Maria apologized, but clearly this was an act of betrayal (Laurel spoke about this on podcasts). Nicole said that she wasn’t interested in a romantic relationship with Cara Maria at the start of this season, and it was clear when Laurel came in as a mercenary that Nicole still had feelings for her.

War of the Worlds 2

On this season, all trust between Laurel and Cara Maria was utterly severed. While Team USA started as a semi-cohesive unit, it wasn’t long before Laurel took the first internal strike at the team and sent Wes to the Proving Ground. At this point, Cara Maria viewed the team as divided, and Laurel was not on her side. This led Team USA (spearheaded by Laurel and Bananas) to throw the Relic Runner challenge and try to eliminate a player on Cara Maria’s side of the house.

Ninja was the person voted into elimination, but Cara Maria knew this meant Laurel was willing to throw challenges to jeopardize her game. Fortunately for Cara Maria, Team UK set up a Ninja vs. Laurel Proving Ground. This was the notorious Branched Out game that Laurel was disqualified from. Ninja returned to the game, but it was a sour ending for Laurel.

All Stars 4

Coming into this season, the two girls were on shaky grounds, but there was some semblance of a friendship. The fact that Laurel’s ex, Nicole, was also on the season added to the complexity. After the first challenge, Cara Maria earned a star. This meant she had to play the game from a different angle than non-star holders like Laurel and Nicole.

As Laurel and Nicole started to rekindle their relationship, Cara Maria grew more distant from Laurel because Nicole really did not like Cara Maria. At one point, Laurel was upset by the complexity of her relationship with Nicole and vented to Cara. This led to Cara Maria referencing the discussion during a vote and Laurel yelling at Cara for misinterpreting everything.

In the final, Cara Maria worked against Laurel and Nicole — though it was a one-winner competition. However, she opted not to help Laurel when she had the opportunities. Despite this, Laurel won and she gave Cara Maria props. She even said that she’d like to work with Cara Maria during a future rivals season, if that ever happens.

Battle of the Eras

When the cast arrived in Vietnam, Laurel and Cara Maria started to chat. Despite leaving All Stars 4 on a bad note, Laurel had broken up with Nicole again and was in a different stage of her life. Paulie warned Cara Maria to keep her distance. He felt that things with Laurel never end well for Cara and he was probably right. After the Era Invitational, Laurel came in first and Cara Maria came in second. Despite the great performance, Cara Maria was still eligible to go into The Arena.

Cara Maria offered to work as a team throughout this season, knowing both she and Laurel were assets to Era 2. However, Laurel sent Cara Maria into the first elimination. Cara won, and now she has no reason to want to work with Laurel moving forward. And, as we know, the two girls aren’t going to play nice. We’ll see them clash during episode 5.