Cara Maria Sorbello unpacks The Challenge: All Stars 4 final and her relationship with Laurel Stucky

Warning: This article contains spoilers for The Challenge: All Stars 4 finale.

Laurel Stucky just won The Challenge: All Stars 4, but she got by with a little (or, more accurately, major) help from her friends.

The finale began with eight competitors, but four were eliminated before the last stage of the final: Derek Chavez, Leroy Garrett, Veronica Portillo, and Nicole Zanatta. As they left, they were able to gift their stars to one of the remaining players, and Laurel ended up with three, while Cara Maria Sorbello wasn't given any.

That had a major impact in the final leg of the two-day race, as each star allowed players to skip an entire checkpoint of their choosing. Laurel bypassed multiple time-consuming puzzles and obstacles, which gave her the edge to beat Cara across the finish line, finally securing her second championship. Cara came in second place, Steve came in third, and Ace Amerson was eliminated in fourth place.

"I feel like I won," Cara Maria tells Entertainment Weekly. "And that win came with a little bit of an asterisk. But a win's a win. Her check cashes, mine doesn't — but I mean, let's be real."

Below, Cara breaks down The Challenge: All Stars 4 final results, her rivalry with Laurel, why watching this season shocked her, and more.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Those stars really played a massive role in how this final ended. How do you feel about what the stars meant and how it all played out?

CARA MARIA SORBELLO: The thing that I've learned about Challenges is you never know what's going to happen. The name of the game was, I guess, be friends with losers because they'll give you their star when they get eliminated. Nobody was going to give me their star. Going into it, when I saw that that was a thing, I was actually going to give my star to Leroy, because I knew Ace would give his star to Steve, Steve would give his star to Ace or whatever, and I was like, "You know what? I'll give this to Leroy so he's got a shot. Maybe this will make up for a million years ago when I had him go into the elimination — where he still made it to the final anyways."

But those stars played a huge factor. If I could beat Laurel, who is a walking advantage, when she has three extra advantages piled on top, I'm like, "Then no one can take this win away from me or say I won because of something weird. I won because I freaking won." So I took it as a challenge. I was optimistic. Maybe these stars are just like a 30-second advantage. But it was skip an entire checkpoint. And to Laurel's credit, she's like, "I'm skipping the puzzle," and those puzzles take time. She saved so much time skipping all those puzzles. I did everything I could. There's not a thing I could have done better or faster, other than the scooter part probably, that would've helped me. So it is what it is. She beat me by the rules of the game. But if those stars were not there, I would've beaten her. I know that for a fact.

I am bummed that we didn't get to see a straight-up Laurel vs. Cara Maria final, because I feel like the debate hasn't been settled over who's the best female competitor.

I think you'll never know, because we could do a puzzle, it could be her day, it could be mine. The only thing that Laurel will definitely beat me on every time is things where she can use her size to her advantage. There's only so much I can do. I'm five-four, and I am maybe a buck 40 if I really put in a lot of work. There's only so much you could do with physics, but can I outrun her? Yeah. Can she outswim me? Yeah. Is she good at weird stuff? Yeah. I don't know what the hell I'm good at, but you know what I mean? I'll figure it out.

But that debate will never be settled. It's like who's better, Johnny or CT? Depends on what. Who's the GOAT, is it Johnny? Is it Jordan? You don't know. It's okay. We can leave that one up for debate. But for this one, she won. Her check cashes. But at least I can't s--- on my season or my performance, because I did everything to the best I possibly could and I regret nothing.

Speaking of the size difference, it was shocking when Laurel didn't go into the elimination against you for so many reasons. But she had kept saying she wanted something physical and, in my opinion, that was a physical elimination. So what did you think of her not taking Kam's spot?

First of all, I didn't know she was even trying to get rid of me like that. I was so blind all season to the game that she was playing behind my back, because to my face, she was crying to me, she was talking to me, it was sisterly. I didn't know the animosity behind my back. I didn't know about the, "We've got to get rid of her at all costs, I'm going to take her out myself." She lives to see me embarrassed or beneath her. She only cares about showing the world that she's better than me, and the way that she can show that is physically.

I'm sure she was hoping for a Hall Brawl, or something where she could put her hands on me so that she could feel like the man, or whatever she wants to feel like, to make up for her insecurities that she struggles with. But when she saw that it was something separate, she chose not to go down. And she's using the excuse that Nicole told her not to. Do you think anybody can tell Laurel what to do? If Laurel wanted to go down, she was going to go down. She didn't want to go down and I'm glad she didn't because who knows, I could have beat her, I could have not, but whatever, everything turned out the way it was supposed to. I got my star back. I faced her in the final.

Actually, if I took her out in that elimination, that would've been better. But you never know what's going to happen. And the only thing you do know is Laurel will always be manipulative and toxic. So trust her never. Nothing she says, nothing she does, never trust.

So it's safe to say you two are not in a good place now, a year and a half later?

Nope. Her obsession with me knows no bounds. If she would just play her own game and do her own thing, it would just be a whole lot better.

So much of this season revolved around the drama between you two. In one episode in particular, she opened up to you and cried about Nicole, but then she screamed in your face about how you had no right to get involved with her relationship with Nicole. Is that really how that went down or was it edited differently?

It's different days. There was no way that editing could have remotely showed how wild things were in that house when it came to Laurel and Nicole. I came in, Laurel was kind of nice to me, Nicole was kind of nice to me. Nicole ran to me to protect her from Laurel, and I'm like, "I ain't getting in the middle of you guys. Leave me out this s---." They did not want anything to do with each other. And when they didn't want anything to do with each other, they were nice to me. And then as soon as they decided they wanted to get together, then I am the enemy or the one that you come and cry to.

This is why I didn't know Laurel was playing the game she was playing against me the entire time, because she came to me to cry about Nicole. She told me things about Nicole that made me hate Nicole. And honestly, with the way Laurel lies, manipulates, and gaslights, half of it could be true, half of it could not, but I hated Nicole. I felt in that moment I was being protective and defensive of my friend. I need to stand up for her. And the way Nicole ran around the house was very uncomfortable. It was paranoid. Is she using Laurel? She's messing with Laurel's head. I think she had a relationship. I didn't know what was going on with Nicole. Everybody who was talking to Nicole hated Laurel. Ace hated Laurel. Jay hated Laurel. I hated Nicole, because I was protecting Laurel. We were each hearing different sides.

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But the amount of times that she would cry to me or be aggravated and never want to talk to Nicole again, and then make out with Nicole right after, was multiple times a day. It was exhausting. I had so many talks with her. I don't know what happened, but I was just so angry and I didn't like what Nicole was turning Laurel into. And if I'm going to face Laurel in a final, or in a competition, I want Laurel to be that animal that we know Laurel is as a competitor. I was like, "Nicole, you're turning Laurel into somebody I don't even know. Where's the competitor? Where's the animal? She's just making out with you in the corner and she's not teed in on the game." I was worried that Laurel was going to look back on it and regret everything, or feel like she was used, or have something not come across correctly. And I was right. And maybe I could have gone about things, in the way I exploded a little bit, better. But I spoke facts, and in the end, I wasn't wrong.

They were the ones that said, "Don't get into my relationship." You guys put me here. You expect me not to say something? When you hear constantly bad things, if you have a friend coming to tell you all the time how toxic the person is that they're with and they're crying to you all the time, but you have to live in a house with them and see them keep getting back together, at what point are you, as a friend, not going to f---ing lose it to protect your friend? I should have just let her go make her own bad decisions, but I had one moment where I lost it.

Kam has spoken out a lot against how hard you were fighting to keep your star, rather than be okay with losing it. What do you think of her argument?

If she wasn't behind sending me in against Rachel and I had to go in and win, she would've gotten a star. Why would I not give it to her? Why would I not ride with Kam all the way to the very end? Whatever way I could help Kam or Leroy out, I was going to do. And holding onto the star is the name of the game. If you're going to hate somebody for that ... I never held onto my star in a way that was detrimental to her in the beginning. I think the reason she was coming with seems like gaslighting, personally. I told her well ahead of time with the Ayanna thing that I can't say Rachel's name. And she goes, "Okay, I respect that. Thank you for letting me know." Rachel was going to go in no matter what, but I keep my word, and that did not affect Kam's game. She still got what she wanted, I still said Ayanna, because she was causing trouble in the house and making Kam uncomfortable.

But Kam wanted me to put my own game on the line for something that didn't affect her bottom line at all and actually would've hurt my game. After that, I just realized that I was disposable. She ran the entire house. I respected her for her gameplay. I was sad that it was against me, and it was very difficult to navigate a game against someone that I respected and loved, especially with her and Leroy. I don't say bad things about them. Leroy never said a bad thing about me, but it was hurtful to see the way Kam talked about me. I love them and their family and I will never say a bad word about them. It's just sad. I still don't get it, but I wish them the best.

What has surprised you the most now that you've seen the entire season?

F---ing mean is the word. Dude, I had no idea, that level of animosity? I was literally just chilling and trying to survive. Ace would constantly try to hint to me and be like, "These people aren't your friends, Cara. You've really got to look out. Even Kam." I'm like, "No! Not Kam, not Jasmine, not Brandon. No." Flora, I liked her in the beginning and was cool with her, and hearing all the things she's saying, that's nasty. It just sounds like jealousy and projection, to be honest. I am not one to say girls are jealous, but they're f---ing jealous. What else can I say? Jealous, intimidated. They want me to be gone so they could get more light on them. But it don't work like that because I don't die. I survive. And that's what I did. And at the end, they only made me stronger.

But I'm sad. You can't find where I'm being whatever they're saying I'm being, because it didn't happen. There's just a massive amount of projection and jealousy coming from these women. And I'm sad because I like to compete against the best, I give credit where it's due, and I think at the end, if they don't want it to be about me then they shouldn't have made it about me. And they did that. Not me. So thank you, because this was a great season for me because of it. I'm glad they gave me a hard road. It's not fun in the moment, but I'm so thankful for it when it's done because it just makes me stronger mentally, physically. So if you shoot, you better shoot to kill because if you don't, I come back and everybody who took a shot is dead.

[Pauses] Except for Laurel. Couldn't kill that one. Because I didn't know! But the lengths that they went, it's insane. I'm flattered.