Form Module break on submit in certain cases: expConfig not found

The setup: a form module in expTheme::main(), and 2 containers in side columns, one before theme::main, another after in the code. In my test, if the first container has no content, meaning that no module was added to that container, we're getting fatal errors, mainly that expConfig is not a class. I've chase it as far as line 508 within subsystems/theme.php, inside exponent_theme_showModule(). renderAction is being called, and I think it's passing blank information from the container...