diff --git a/h/js/directives.coffee b/h/js/directives.coffee
index 700cbbf5711..0c6f29ac939 100644
--- a/h/js/directives.coffee
+++ b/h/js/directives.coffee
@@ -35,12 +35,15 @@ annotation = ['$filter', ($filter) ->
 
 
 recursive = ['$compile', ($compile) ->
-  compile: (tElement, tAttrs) ->
-    linkRec = $compile tElement.contents().remove(), (scope, cloneAttachFn) ->
-      linkRec scope, cloneAttachFn
+  compile: (tElement, tAttrs, transclude) ->
+    transclude = $compile tElement, (scope, cloneAttachFn) ->
+      transclude scope, cloneAttachFn
+    , 1000
     post: (scope, iElement, iAttrs, controller) ->
-      linkRec scope, (contents) -> iElement.append contents
+      transclude scope, (el) -> iElement.replaceWith el
+  priority: 1000
   restrict: 'A'
+  terminal: true
 ]
 
 
diff --git a/h/templates/viewer.html b/h/templates/viewer.html
index 254f72145d0..ce8bb2237ee 100644
--- a/h/templates/viewer.html
+++ b/h/templates/viewer.html
@@ -16,9 +16,9 @@
     <div class="paper excerpt">
       <blockquote data-ng-bind="thread.message.annotation.quote" />
     </div>
-    <div data-recursive="" class="paper">
+    <div class="paper">
       <!-- Thread view -->
-      <div class="thread">
+      <div data-recursive="" class="thread">
         <!-- Annotation -->
         <div data-ng-model="thread.message.annotation"
              class="detail annotation" />