Cara Maria Sorbello and Paulie Calafiore orchestrated a risky plan in hopes of eliminating Johnny Bananas on the Sept. 25 episode of The Challenge: War of the Worlds — and it paid off. During a team meeting, Paulie revealed that he wanted to be named the ‘speaker’ for the team if they won the next challenge. This would put him in a power position to choose the other two members of the tribunal, and together, the trio got to pick who would be going into elimination. Of course, Johnny and the other members of his alliance didn’t trust Paulie, but Paulie vowed not to nominated a member of team U.S. if he was named speaker. Johnny reluctantly agreed, and they even shook on it.
Of course, Paulie did not keep his word. He picked his girlfriend, Cara, to be one of the members of the tribunal, guaranteeing they would have control. Cara made no secret that she was going to vote for Johnny, but Paulie pretended to be going along with his promise all along — until it came time to vote, and he also voted for Bananas. Bananas went up against Theo Campbell from team U.K. and lost in a close elimination.
“We had this all orchestrated,” Cara confirmed to HollywoodLife EXCLUSIVELY. “I didn’t know originally what Paulie was doing with making the deal and shaking Johnny’s hand, so I was worried until they filled me in after. But my whole angle was to act like I was always going to vote for Johnny, but let everyone know that it was going to be a burn. Because [they thought] Paulie wasn’t going to vote for Johnny. They’re idiots for believing that. It was orchestrated from the moment he shook Johnny’s hand.”
As for Cara’s emotional breakdown in the club, where she cried to Josh Martinez about why she wanted to vote for Johnny — that was all part of the plan, too. “My angle at the club was to see where the hell Josh’s head was at,” she explained. “We kept trying to give him the benefit of the doubt that he was supposed to support Paulie and be on Paulie’s side, but he was clearly doing whatever Johnny wanted. When I faked cried about wanting to put Johnny in, Josh was like…you can’t put him in, he’s a good player, it’d be a hit to our team. I turned on the waterworks and did everything I could just to basically see that he was brainwashed by Johnny. He was Johnny’s puppet and that’s when I discovered that.”
Johnny and Cara have a long history on The Challenge. They didn’t start out seeing eye-to-eye, and when Cara was dating Abram Boise, Johnny sabotaged the relationship by filming Cara’s hookup with Thomas Buell. However, they eventually started seeing past their differences and even teamed up as friends — until Cara started dating Paulie.
“If you really want to take it back, Johnny has some kind of weird…I don’t know if it’s like….a possession issue with me?” Cara revealed. “I think Johnny’s original issue with me and Paulie stemmed from [his ex], Natalie [Negrotti]. Johnny had his falling out with Natalie on Final Reckoning, and Paulie was her partner and she was my girl.” After Final Reckoning, Paulie and Cara’s relationship went through some drama of its own, as he was exposed for still seeing his ex, Danielle Maltby, at the same time.
“When things were going on with me and Paulie, [Johnny] got me in my point of the lowest that I was,” Cara explained. “Paulie was trying to be cool with Johnny, but Johnny kept telling [me], he’s using you, he’s up to no good. I don’t know if that’s what Johnny really felt or if it was just him trying to take me back, in a weird way. So, I was at my lowest of low, and Johnny had a handful of people — whose best interest was in me and Paulie not being together — in my ear. They were saying…he’s not stable, he’s a sociopath. They came at me hard at a time when I was really messed up in the head.”
In the end, though, it was Johnny’s decision to throw a challenge on War of the Worlds 2 that really set Cara off. “The only reason Johnny got what he got is because he sabotaged his team,” she said.”I don’t want someone on my team that’s going to make us lose. Any chance Johnny got [to get me out], he would have just taken another shot. This was me taking the gun back.”