diff --git plugins/content_types/node_context/node_comments.inc plugins/content_types/node_context/node_comments.inc
index 47176ea..46629e2 100644
--- plugins/content_types/node_context/node_comments.inc
+++ plugins/content_types/node_context/node_comments.inc
@@ -90,12 +90,16 @@ function ctools_comment_render($node, $conf) {
   $query
     ->condition('c.nid', $node->nid)
     ->addTag('node_access')
+    ->addTag('comment_filter')
+    ->addMetaData('node', $node)
     ->limit($comments_per_page);
 
   $count_query = db_select('comment', 'c');
   $count_query->addExpression('COUNT(*)');
   $count_query
     ->condition('c.nid', $node->nid)
+    ->addTag('comment_filter')
+    ->addMetaData('node', $node)
     ->addTag('node_access');
 
   if (!user_access('administer comments')) {
@@ -109,7 +113,8 @@ function ctools_comment_render($node, $conf) {
     // See comment above. Analysis reveals that this doesn't cost too
     // much. It scales much much better than having the whole comment
     // structure.
-    $query->orderBy('SUBSTRING(c.thread, 1, (LENGTH(c.thread) - 1))', 'ASC');
+    $query->addExpression('SUBSTRING(c.thread, 1, (LENGTH(c.thread) - 1))', 'torder');
+    $query->orderBy('torder', 'ASC');
   }
 
   $query->setCountQuery($count_query);