lib/PublicInbox/SearchThread.pm | 11 ++---------

diff --git a/lib/PublicInbox/SearchThread.pm b/lib/PublicInbox/SearchThread.pm
index f07dd69665623985461df30166cd0c148b4fe7f8..cc8c90ce23d4f51354e5599ecf16810d86afdd6d 100644
--- a/lib/PublicInbox/SearchThread.pm
+++ b/lib/PublicInbox/SearchThread.pm
@@ -38,13 +38,13 @@ 		# this delete saves around 4K across 1K messages
 		# TODO: move this to a more appropriate place, breaks tests
 		# if we do it during psgi_cull
 		delete $_->{num};
-
-		PublicInbox::SearchThread::Msg::cast($_);
+		bless $_, 'PublicInbox::SearchThread::Msg';
 		if (exists $id_table{$_->{mid}}) {
 			$_->{children} = [];
 			push @imposters, $_; # we'll deal with them later
 			undef;
 		} else {
+			$_->{children} = {}; # will become arrayref later
 			$id_table{$_->{mid}} = $_;
 			defined($_->{references});
 		}
@@ -106,13 +106,6 @@ 	bless {
 		mid => $_[0],
 		children => {}, # becomes an array when sorted by ->order(...)
 	}, __PACKAGE__;
-}
-
-# give a existing smsg the methods of this class
-sub cast {
-	my ($smsg) = @_;
-	$smsg->{children} = {};
-	bless $smsg, __PACKAGE__;
 }
 
 sub topmost {