‘The Resident’s Matt Czuchry Talks Conrad & Nic’s Big, ‘Perfect’ Moment
Spoiler Alert
[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Season 3, Episode 16 of The Resident, “Reverse Cinderella.”]
CoNic fans, this one’s for you.
The Resident has had fans of its central couple, Conrad (Matt Czuchry) and Nic (Emily VanCamp), waiting for him to pull out that ring we saw back in the fall finale. And in “Reverse Cinderella,” it finally happened — with a twist.
After a conversation with her accountant, Nic figured they should just get married for the “discounted auto insurance, joint taxes,” you know, the “practical” reasons. Conrad rejected her proposal, explaining, “If we ever decide to get married, I want the perfect proposal for us, and I’m sorry, seducing me with the best car insurance rates, that’s not my idea of perfect.”
But don’t worry. Conrad countered with the sweetest proposal: “I love you deeply. You were my rock when I got fired, you pushed me to forgive my father, you gave me chickens. You always make those annoying sounds when you eat, and I’ll probably never learn to pick up my socks, but nobody’s perfect. What matters is we just keep trying to make each other better. What matters is that we belong together.”
With that, he took out the ring, got down on one knee, and started to ask her to marry him. She pulled him up into a kiss before he could finish, but the result is the same: Conrad and Nic are engaged!
(Guy D’Alema/FOX)
TV Insider spoke with Czuchry about the couple’s big moment, the looming threat of Red Rock, and what’s next.
Conrad has had that ring all this time and Nic nearly steals his thunder.
Matt Czuchry: Yeah, I feel like Conrad, in his professional life, is often impulsive when it comes to protecting his patients against the system. What we saw [with] the seed that was planted in Episode 10 with Conrad having the ring is him being incredibly patient and thoughtful about the way he wanted to propose to Nic. We saw a different side to Conrad in his patience and not being so impulsive with this decision.
What I love about that proposal, the way it turned out, is that in Conrad’s mind, he was wanting the perfect proposal and waiting for that moment to happen and carrying that ring around in his pocket for weeks, but oftentimes, in life, the thing that’s right doesn’t go as we planned. And that becomes the most perfect part about it, the unexpected part of it.
I especially loved Conrad’s “you gave me chickens.”
Yeah, I loved that the proposal is very unique to Nic and Conrad. The writers did a great job of shaping [it]. In this particular episode, we also have the Irving and Jessica proposal that was unique to them. You also have Devon and Princess Nadine in moments unique to them. You also have the Raptor and Mina in their moments. Each of those personal relationships are unique to those characters and that’s what makes this episode special.
Also, when I read this, two proposals in one episode felt like a season finale. This is Episode 16. We weren’t pulling any punches here with this one.
(Guy D’Alema/FOX)
Conrad and Nic are such a stable couple this season. How has their relationship grown that made now the right time to get married?
They’ve always had a comfortability with one another in terms of their professional and personal lives, but stability is the right word [for what] they’ve found. Even though they’ve been comfortable with one another and loved one another, in their personal and professional lives, they’ve been up and down because they haven’t had that stability and oftentimes stability depends on the right timing.
What we’ve seen from Season 1, from the pilot until now, with their relationship, is they’ve found that stability in their lives. Conrad says to Nic at the ball, “after everything we’ve been through together this year, I know we can get through anything.” The passing of Jessie and what Nic’s father went through and Conrad being fired, those challenges that you face in a relationship and how you manage those as a team is defining to a couple. They got through some of the toughest moments of their lives together. That’s why this is the right time for them to take that next step.
How’s wedding planning going to go? At least we know this one will have “I dos” unlike Devon’s, right?
We’re on Episode 20 right now, so we’ve seen bits. In 17, you see basically an engagement party. You see some planning. Again, it’ll be unique to who Conrad and Nic are.
Best man and maid of honor, Devon and Mina?
Right now they’re in the planning stages, so to be determined.
(Guy D’Alema/FOX)
It’s been quite the rough year for Conrad, becoming chief resident, only to be fired, then getting his job back. How’s he feeling about his professional life right now, especially with Red Rock still around?
Those are some threads that are lingering that we started at the beginning of Season 3 regarding Red Rock and the conglomerate taking over the hospital.
On the personal side, he has that foundation now but maybe it’s that as the personal life gets more stable, the professional life gets more shaky. The concept of Red Rock and those threads that we’ve created all throughout the season and Conrad getting fired in Episode 10 are coming to a head and will come to a conclusion in 19-23. That professional aspect for him is on shaky ground because Red Rock is still there and the intricacies of how that plays out is a major part for everyone in the show in 19-23.
In this episode, we see Logan go to Conrad about shutting down the OBGYN department and that was so rough to watch.
Conrad getting fired after he became chief resident and even though he’s back at the hospital, [being] on shaky ground is evidenced by Logan requesting Conrad do something he doesn’t want to do. That all these threads that have been interwoven from the beginning of the season with Red Rock and Logan Kim and Cain and Chastain itself are all going to come together. I just read 21, and 19, 20, and 21 are really weaving all these storylines together in a cool and unexpected way that I think fans will be happy about.
Red Rock has kind of brought Conrad and Bell together, which is crazy to think about with how the series started with those two.
Yeah, we see that in this episode, Conrad goes to Bell for help. And Bell came to Conrad for help in the episode before that. That really shows the growth of that relationship between those two characters from where they were in the pilot. They were on opposite ends of the spectrum, but these two characters have really grown and changed over the course of the series, [like the Conrad and Nic relationship has].
(Guy D’Alema/FOX)
That’s an advantage of television, if it done right, that you can really see these characters grow and change over the course of three seasons in our case. Those are two relationships worth pointing out that have had significant change that has happened organically. That’s exciting for fans and for us. We’re constantly trying to do is to have these characters grow and change in an organic way and those are really good examples of it.
And while Conrad and Nic were getting engaged, the doctors were trying to save that baby. What’s coming up there?
That does carry over into Episode 17. That is a factor that, again, highlights Red Rock’s decision making process. … That will be addressed in the next episode and pretty much wrapped up in the next episode, but the Red Rock thread itself, which that’s a piece of, carries all the way through to 23.
The Resident, Tuesdays, 8/7c, Fox
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