This is not the only time we realize these two are kidding themselves but it is probably the first.
Tony is motoring around New England taking Meadow to various colleges so she can tour them and talk to school officials so that she can decide where she wants to apply. Carmela is home recovering from the flu, when her priest comes by, seemingly always looking for good food and a good movie on laserdisc, the premiere video format of the time.
During this trip Tony sees someone he thinks is a "rat" - somebody in the mob who twelve years before turned state witness and sent a bunch of his crew to jail and then went into witness protection. Would Tony jeopardize not only a trip that is supposed to be about his daughter but perhaps his daughter's life to whack the rat? Of course he would! And there is no doubt that if Tony loves anybody, that he loves his daughter.
Carmela becomes all weepy with the priest, confessing that she knows living off of Tony's life of crime is wrong but that she is attracted to what is easy versus what is good. She gets in these confessional moods several times over the life of the series, especially when she is facing some kind of crisis, but nothing ever changes. Over the years she talks to at least one other priest and a therapist, but in the end she continues down the same path.
I feel that this episode is underrated as it may feel like filler, but it is in fact quite revealing. And it is probably the only time in which Ronald Reagan's lips have served as a plot device.
