Ratings: 20.1 million viewers

Meredith: (voiceover) Too often, the thing you want most is the one thing you can't have. Desire leaves us heartbroken, it wears us out. Desire can wreck your life. But as tough as wanting something can be, the people who suffer the most are those who don't know what they want.

Meredith: (voiceover) As interns, we know what we want: to become surgeons. And we’ll do anything to get there. Suffer through killer exams, endure one hundred hour weeks, stand for hours on end in operating rooms. You name it, we’ll do it. The tough part is though, reconciling this huge thing we want, to be surgeons, with everything else we want.

Alex: So that's all? There's nothing more we can do? Am I overreacting?
Addison: I wish someone would care that much about my blood pressure.

George: What is the strongest layer in the small bowel?
Cristina: (sampling wedding cake from Burke) Fine, yummy.
Izzie: Damn it, damn it, damn it, damn it!
George: It is “not snot”.
Izzie: Submucosa!
George: Yes!
Cristina: Wait wait wait wait. How do you know that? Are you studying with the wife’s cards?
Meredith: What cards?
Cristina: Callie was ranked number one in her year after this test. She has legendary flash cards.
Izzie: I don’t need the flash cards. (motioning towards George) We are independently brilliant.
George: Dream team.
Cristina: Yeah, I’m gonna hurl.

Meredith: I haven't seen you in a few days. I left messages.
Derek: Yeah I know. I was just --
Meredith: I know I told you to stop hovering and you did and I appreciate that, but now stop the stopping.

Meredith: Are we fine?
Derek: Sure.
Meredith: Not convincing. I shouldn't have accused you of hovering. It wasn't nice. You were just trying to be there for me. But now I'm being available, and communicating, and getting naked, and doing all of your favorite things.
Derek: Good things.
Meredith: Then why are you still staring at the ceiling?
Derek: I don't ... I just ... that day you came out of the water ... trying to breathe for you. I love you, and I want you, but I don't know what to ... you didn't swim. You didn't swim and you know how to. And I don't know if I can ... I don't know if I want to keep trying to breathe for you.
Meredith: I should go. I'll go.

Meredith: Talk about divine retribution.
Izzie: What?
Meredith: He sleeps with his assistant and a carnivorous fish lodges itself in his penis. That’s instant karma if I’ve ever seen it.
Cristina: Yeah, well, Derek wasn’t struck by lightening and neither were you.
Meredith: Addison showed up. I had months of pain and self-loathing, crazy ranting mother, and a near drowning off the side of a dock. I mean it’s no fish in my whowho but it’s certainly not an easy ride.

Callie: (to Izzie in the elevator) Don’t talk. Um, I know it’s not fair, and I know it’s not your fault and I know there’s nothing going on between you and George. I know that. Except there is. You’re his best friend. He loves you. He gets you, he needs you, and I’m just ... I’m just, I’m his wife. And I know, I know I get the sex and the commitment and life with him but I want him to get me, and to need me. And I can’t compete with you. So I am asking you to please stop. Just stop. Find another friend, or whatever you do. Just give me my husband back.

George: What’s your problem?
Izzie: My problem is you. You’re my penis fish.
George: Your what?
Izzie: You’ve crawled in and latched on, and now I can’t move, or talk, or think, or even pee without the nagging feeling that something is eating through my organs!
George: You don’t even have a penis. How am I the fish?
Izzie: It’s a metaphor, George.
George: What happened to us being fine?
Izzie: I don’t know. Maybe we’re not.

Mark: Twenty-eight more days and then it's you and me in a locked room for record breaking, earth shattering, mind blowing --
Addison: Okay, I got it. Thank you.
Mark: That was less than enthusiastic.
Addison: I'm gonna be more enthusiastic when we cross the finish line.
Mark: Okay, just making sure you haven't lost interest in the project.
Addison: Not at all.
Mark: Good.

Episode Title: Desire

"Desire" is the title of a song by U2.