Things are starting to come together for comment replies. The logic is pretty much there but I'm still thinking about the layout.
Clicking the arrow sets the parent comment and takes you to the reply form – instead of saying "Leave a reply" it will say "Replying to" and the relevant commenter's name. Threads are only going to be one level deep just to keep things simple.
Next up: if the reply is in response to a webmention reply then one needs to be sent back.