lib/PublicInbox/SearchThread.pm | 10 ++++++++++
 lib/PublicInbox/SearchView.pm   |  5 +++--
 lib/PublicInbox/View.pm         |  4 ++--

diff --git a/lib/PublicInbox/SearchThread.pm b/lib/PublicInbox/SearchThread.pm
index 24a56d2d965a4826f2d9e25fc586f5278921523d..fe70406b0cbad163f2b52f23d9bda019367e55d4 100644
--- a/lib/PublicInbox/SearchThread.pm
+++ b/lib/PublicInbox/SearchThread.pm
@@ -98,6 +98,16 @@ 		children => {}, # becomes an array when sorted by ->order(...)
 	}, $_[0];
 }
 
+sub topmost {
+	my ($self) = @_;
+	my @q = ($self);
+	while (my $cont = shift @q) {
+		return $cont if $cont->{smsg};
+		push @q, values %{$cont->{children}};
+	}
+	undef;
+}
+
 sub add_child {
 	my ($self, $child) = @_;
 	croak "Cowardly refusing to become my own parent: $self"
diff --git a/lib/PublicInbox/SearchView.pm b/lib/PublicInbox/SearchView.pm
index cfe6dfffa454d14e55cea7d452a1890873a43b2a..ebeb41f7a153ffbd69d137600261a85d5ea5d14e 100644
--- a/lib/PublicInbox/SearchView.pm
+++ b/lib/PublicInbox/SearchView.pm
@@ -155,8 +155,9 @@ 	my $th = PublicInbox::SearchThread->new(\@m);
 	$th->thread;
 	if ($q->{r}) { # order by relevance
 		$th->order(sub {
-			[ sort { ( $pct{$b->{id}} || 0) <=>
-				 ( $pct{$a->{id}} || 0)
+			[ sort { (eval { $pct{$b->topmost->{id}} } || 0)
+					<=>
+				(eval { $pct{$a->topmost->{id}} } || 0)
 			} @{$_[0]} ];
 		});
 	} else { # order by time (default for threaded view)
diff --git a/lib/PublicInbox/View.pm b/lib/PublicInbox/View.pm
index 0f00458eb0a68249dfa6fdc381f0e7eb32b71d0e..5d5808fad5b2176307e579d5108ad4e7284fd2db 100644
--- a/lib/PublicInbox/View.pm
+++ b/lib/PublicInbox/View.pm
@@ -852,8 +852,8 @@ }
 
 sub sort_ts {
 	[ sort {
-		(eval { $a->{smsg}->ts } || 0) <=>
-		(eval { $b->{smsg}->ts } || 0)
+		(eval { $a->topmost->{smsg}->ts } || 0) <=>
+		(eval { $b->topmost->{smsg}->ts } || 0)
 	} @{$_[0]} ];
 }