Here's What Aviva Did During Her Disappearance

Despite being highly anticipated and over a year in the making, this season of Real Housewives of New York isn't exactly a ratings smash and has even lost popularity among fans. While I believe this season is grossly underrated, there's no denying the one big thorn in the side of the show: Aviva Drescher. Every step of the way she's either been trying to steal the spotlight or completely vanishing.

Early in the season, back when Book-gate was still a thing (it feels like a lifetime ago), during the cast's brief sojourn to the Hamptons, Aviva brought along that terrible Housewife wannabe/"image consultant" Amanda to serve as her attack dog and potential new costar. But that flamed out when everyone refused to even learn Amanda's name.

We've even had several episodes where Aviva wasn't in the opening credits. Reportedly, she was put on hiatus by the series' producers after refusing to attend two cast trips. First, she skipped out on the Berkshires trip because she was feuding with Heather and Carole, and Aviva doesn't show up for a fight she can't win — and even if Ramona and Sonja paid attention long enough to be on her side, there's no way she would have gotten out scott free from that fight.

She then used her newly diagnosed asthma as an excuse for missing Kristen's Montana trip. While the girls were probably a little paranoid assuming Aviva faked the prescription and diagnosis, can you blame them? Every time Aviva has been faced with the idea of not having the upper hand, she disappears — which means she's been suspiciously absent from everything that wasn't her two housewarming parties, her father's engagement, and LuAnn's charity luncheon. Of course then she hijacked the luncheon with her story about Miss America having a threesome with her father.

It looks she's lost it just in time for the season finale, when she throws her leg on the ground.

So where exactly was Aviva during the rest of this season? RHONY filmed during the spring and summer of 2013. The second Hamptons trip was right around Fourth of July weekend (remember the fireworks?), the Berkshires sometime after that, and the Montana trip took place right around Labor Day. Through all of that time, Aviva was as good as AWOL. Here's what she was doing at the time, thanks to sleuthing done from posts on Aviva's Instagram and Twitter.

May 2013

Right around Memorial Day, she posted shots of tons of moving boxes. This must be at the start of the season, around the time of her housewarming party.

June 2013

This month, Aviva shoots her book cover. We saw that, but why not all the work she put into gay rights activism? It could have gone a long way to humanizing Aviva, who was in full jerk mode for this whole month, constantly spreading ghostwriter rumors.

July 2013

Around the Fourth, she posted plenty of pics with her kids and dog hanging out in the Hamptons. That corroborates the Housewives tape — the July 4 clam bake is where Aviva pulled out a copy of Carole's book, shocking her into ending Book-gate.

In the middle of the month, she appears on a red carpet with a few of her costars, which must mean the Berkshires trip hasn't happened yet, right? Aviva then spends the rest of July in the Hamptons with family. No evidence that she went to Molly Sims' party.

August 2013

Seems like Aviva did stick around in the Tri-State Area, but did a lot of fall magazine spreads. Pretty much every post is of her posing on either her Hamptons lawn or in front of that hideous yellow wallpaper in her apartment.

Late in August, around what could have been the Montana trip, she was shooting an Ok! photoshoot in her apartment. That could have been why she didn't want to head all the way to the west. On Labor Day, she posts an inscription that reads "Be the Best Version of You" and hashtags RHONY after it. Hmm. Could this be when Montana ended and she came back on the show? So many guesses, so few concrete answers.

Well, while the Aviva Inquisition didn't turn up anything particularly juicy, one thing's for sure — with the advent of social media documentation, it's easy to disprove empty claims about business trips if you keep posting poolside updates. This just means if Housewives wanna disappear for a few episodes — they better get really good at covering their tracks.

Image: Peter Kramer/Bravo; Aviva Drescher/Instagram (4)