If you are on the recent view, clicking the title of any post will take you to that post's parent page and scroll down to the relevant comment. This should make everything MUCH more intuitive. Just remember, when in doubt click the title.

I can make these default to opening in a new tab if you guys think that's the best way to do it, or you can just hold down ctrl or use your middle mouse button to force the link to open in a new tab.