What was the point of the empty container in the beginning of White Collar S06E04?

Question

Introduction

Yesterday, I watched the latest (as of right now) episode of White Collar (Season 6, Episode 4), and in the beginning we see Neal enter a warehouse of come sort and open a storage container. Once opened, he sees that it's empty and seem puzzled, confused or concerned about this.

The episode then cuts to Neal meeting Peter Burke and after a brief banter on Peter being nervous about not being able to track Neal anymore, they get on with their day and their case.

As far I can tell, there is no further mention or hint towards the storage container.

I do realise that this might be intentional and that an explanation may present itself in the last two episodes. However, I must ask myself (and, you guys): am I missing something?

Question(s)

1. What, if any, is the significance of the storage container in the plot of this season?
2. Is this a container from Neal's past, or previous episodes? If so, when and from what?
3. What was he expecting to find in the storage container?

Again, I realize these questions may not have answers as of S06E04, but if they do, please provide them, to your best ability. I am, first and foremost, looking for answers available within the show, but well-founded speculations are welcome too.

Answer 1

As Chris commented, it was explained in the finale. There may be spoilers if you haven't seen the finale.

I believe the writers wanted the viewers to be confused and wonder about the container, just as Peter was wondering why Neal was there making an exchange with the woman.

The container was one of the hints to Neal's endgame plan. And in the finale, just after we completely forget about the container because they kind of avoided it (also because of the death and all), the writers used it to surprise us with Neal's ridiculously elaborate plan. By the way, one of the other hints to this plan was when Peter was given Neal's personal belongings at the hospital. They showed us the items, and the key for the container was one of them.

For question 2, the container does not have any significance from his past. All of the container's significance is in the future.

For question 3, Neal wasn't looking for anything in particular inside of the container. But you could say he was looking for an empty container, that was also easily visible from anybody spying on him because he knew Peter would have eyes on him now that his anklet was off.