diff --git a/wp-admin/includes/schema.php b/wp-admin/includes/schema.php
index eea643024a..344ba5a9f1 100644
--- a/wp-admin/includes/schema.php
+++ b/wp-admin/includes/schema.php
@@ -482,6 +482,7 @@ function populate_options() {
 	'close_comments_days_old' => 14,
 	'thread_comments' => 1,
 	'thread_comments_depth' => 5,
+	'page_comments' => 0,
 	'comments_per_page' => 50,
 	'default_comments_page' => 'newest',
 	'comment_order' => 'asc',
@@ -567,7 +568,7 @@ function populate_options() {
 		'can_compress_scripts', 'page_uris', 'update_core', 'update_plugins', 'update_themes', 'doing_cron',
 		'random_seed', 'rss_excerpt_length', 'secret', 'use_linksupdate', 'default_comment_status_page',
 		'wporg_popular_tags', 'what_to_show', 'rss_language', 'language', 'enable_xmlrpc', 'enable_app',
-		'embed_autourls', 'default_post_edit_rows', 'page_comments',
+		'embed_autourls', 'default_post_edit_rows',
 	);
 	foreach ( $unusedoptions as $option )
 		delete_option($option);
diff --git a/wp-admin/options-discussion.php b/wp-admin/options-discussion.php
index 02b4379526..3d59195fd4 100644
--- a/wp-admin/options-discussion.php
+++ b/wp-admin/options-discussion.php
@@ -98,6 +98,8 @@ printf( __('Enable threaded (nested) comments %s levels deep'), $thread_comments
 
 ?></label>
 <br />
+<label for="page_comments">
+<input name="page_comments" type="checkbox" id="page_comments" value="1" <?php checked( '1', get_option( 'page_comments' ) ); ?> />
 <?php
 $default_comments_page = '</label><label for="default_comments_page"><select name="default_comments_page" id="default_comments_page"><option value="newest"';
 if ( 'newest' == get_option('default_comments_page') ) $default_comments_page .= ' selected="selected"';
@@ -105,7 +107,7 @@ $default_comments_page .= '>' . __('last') . '</option><option value="oldest"';
 if ( 'oldest' == get_option('default_comments_page') ) $default_comments_page .= ' selected="selected"';
 $default_comments_page .= '>' . __('first') . '</option></select>';
 
-printf( __('Break comments into pages with %1$s top level comments per page and the %2$s page displayed by default'), '<label for="comments_per_page"><input name="comments_per_page" type="number" step="1" min="0" id="comments_per_page" value="' . esc_attr(get_option('comments_per_page')) . '" class="small-text" />', $default_comments_page );
+printf( __('Break comments into pages with %1$s top level comments per page and the %2$s page displayed by default'), '</label><label for="comments_per_page"><input name="comments_per_page" type="number" step="1" min="0" id="comments_per_page" value="' . esc_attr(get_option('comments_per_page')) . '" class="small-text" />', $default_comments_page );
 
 ?></label>
 <br />
diff --git a/wp-admin/options.php b/wp-admin/options.php
index 017725ddeb..6bad0fd61f 100644
--- a/wp-admin/options.php
+++ b/wp-admin/options.php
@@ -83,7 +83,7 @@ if ( is_multisite() && ! is_super_admin() && 'update' != $action ) {
 
 $whitelist_options = array(
 	'general' => array( 'blogname', 'blogdescription', 'gmt_offset', 'date_format', 'time_format', 'start_of_week', 'timezone_string', 'WPLANG' ),
-	'discussion' => array( 'default_pingback_flag', 'default_ping_status', 'default_comment_status', 'comments_notify', 'moderation_notify', 'comment_moderation', 'require_name_email', 'comment_whitelist', 'comment_max_links', 'moderation_keys', 'blacklist_keys', 'show_avatars', 'avatar_rating', 'avatar_default', 'close_comments_for_old_posts', 'close_comments_days_old', 'thread_comments', 'thread_comments_depth', 'comments_per_page', 'default_comments_page', 'comment_order', 'comment_registration' ),
+	'discussion' => array( 'default_pingback_flag', 'default_ping_status', 'default_comment_status', 'comments_notify', 'moderation_notify', 'comment_moderation', 'require_name_email', 'comment_whitelist', 'comment_max_links', 'moderation_keys', 'blacklist_keys', 'show_avatars', 'avatar_rating', 'avatar_default', 'close_comments_for_old_posts', 'close_comments_days_old', 'thread_comments', 'thread_comments_depth', 'page_comments', 'comments_per_page', 'default_comments_page', 'comment_order', 'comment_registration' ),
 	'media' => array( 'thumbnail_size_w', 'thumbnail_size_h', 'thumbnail_crop', 'medium_size_w', 'medium_size_h', 'large_size_w', 'large_size_h', 'image_default_size', 'image_default_align', 'image_default_link_type' ),
 	'reading' => array( 'posts_per_page', 'posts_per_rss', 'rss_use_excerpt', 'show_on_front', 'page_on_front', 'page_for_posts', 'blog_public' ),
 	'writing' => array( 'default_category', 'default_email_category', 'default_link_category', 'default_post_format' )
diff --git a/wp-includes/canonical.php b/wp-includes/canonical.php
index b6587973ce..c7f7e11555 100644
--- a/wp-includes/canonical.php
+++ b/wp-includes/canonical.php
@@ -318,7 +318,10 @@ function redirect_canonical( $requested_url = null, $do_redirect = true ) {
 				}
 			}
 
-			if ( ( 'newest' == get_option('default_comments_page') && get_query_var('cpage') > 0 ) || ( 'newest' != get_option('default_comments_page') && get_query_var('cpage') > 1 ) ) {
+			if ( get_option( 'page_comments' ) && (
+				( 'newest' == get_option( 'default_comments_page' ) && get_query_var( 'cpage' ) > 0 ) ||
+				( 'newest' != get_option( 'default_comments_page' ) && get_query_var( 'cpage' ) > 1 )
+			) ) {
 				$addl_path = ( !empty( $addl_path ) ? trailingslashit($addl_path) : '' ) . user_trailingslashit( $wp_rewrite->comments_pagination_base . '-' . get_query_var('cpage'), 'commentpaged' );
 				$redirect['query'] = remove_query_arg( 'cpage', $redirect['query'] );
 			}
diff --git a/wp-includes/comment-functions.php b/wp-includes/comment-functions.php
index 7f7cbb6e5b..c26bdc4234 100644
--- a/wp-includes/comment-functions.php
+++ b/wp-includes/comment-functions.php
@@ -807,6 +807,10 @@ function get_comment_pages_count( $comments = null, $per_page = null, $threaded
 	if ( empty($comments) )
 		return 0;
 
+	if ( ! get_option( 'page_comments' ) ) {
+		return 1;
+	}
+
 	if ( !isset($per_page) )
 		$per_page = (int) get_query_var('comments_per_page');
 	if ( 0 === $per_page )
@@ -860,12 +864,14 @@ function get_page_of_comment( $comment_ID, $args = array() ) {
 	$original_args = $args;
 
 	// Order of precedence: 1. `$args['per_page']`, 2. 'comments_per_page' query_var, 3. 'comments_per_page' option.
-	if ( '' === $args['per_page'] ) {
-		$args['per_page'] = get_query_var( 'comments_per_page' );
-	}
+	if ( get_option( 'page_comments' ) ) {
+		if ( '' === $args['per_page'] ) {
+			$args['per_page'] = get_query_var( 'comments_per_page' );
+		}
 
-	if ( '' === $args['per_page'] ) {
-		$args['per_page'] = get_option( 'comments_per_page' );
+		if ( '' === $args['per_page'] ) {
+			$args['per_page'] = get_option( 'comments_per_page' );
+		}
 	}
 
 	if ( empty($args['per_page']) ) {
diff --git a/wp-includes/comment-template.php b/wp-includes/comment-template.php
index 6174c0c1df..18d3e7a553 100644
--- a/wp-includes/comment-template.php
+++ b/wp-includes/comment-template.php
@@ -706,7 +706,7 @@ function get_comment_link( $comment = null, $args = array() ) {
 
 	// No 'cpage' is provided, so we calculate one.
 	} else {
-		if ( '' === $args['per_page'] ) {
+		if ( '' === $args['per_page'] && get_option( 'page_comments' ) ) {
 			$args['per_page'] = get_option('comments_per_page');
 		}
 
@@ -1268,6 +1268,7 @@ function comments_template( $file = '/comments.php', $separate_comments = false
 
 	$comment_args = array(
 		'orderby' => 'comment_date_gmt',
+		'order' => 'ASC',
 		'status'  => 'approve',
 		'post_id' => $post->ID,
 		'hierarchical' => 'threaded',
@@ -1281,30 +1282,32 @@ function comments_template( $file = '/comments.php', $separate_comments = false
 		$comment_args['include_unapproved'] = array( $comment_author_email );
 	}
 
-	$per_page = (int) get_query_var( 'comments_per_page' );
-	if ( 0 === $per_page ) {
-		$per_page = (int) get_option( 'comments_per_page' );
-	}
+	$per_page = 0;
+	if ( get_option( 'page_comments' ) ) {
+		$per_page = (int) get_query_var( 'comments_per_page' );
+		if ( 0 === $per_page ) {
+			$per_page = (int) get_option( 'comments_per_page' );
+		}
 
-	$comment_args['order']  = 'ASC';
-	$comment_args['number'] = $per_page;
-	$page = (int) get_query_var( 'cpage' );
+		$comment_args['number'] = $per_page;
+		$page = (int) get_query_var( 'cpage' );
 
-	if ( $page ) {
-		$comment_args['offset'] = ( $page - 1 ) * $per_page;
-	} elseif ( 'oldest' === get_option( 'default_comments_page' ) ) {
-		$comment_args['offset'] = 0;
-	} else {
-		// If fetching the first page of 'newest', we need a top-level comment count.
-		$top_level_query = new WP_Comment_Query();
-		$top_level_count = $top_level_query->query( array(
-			'count'   => true,
-			'orderby' => false,
-			'post_id' => $post->ID,
-			'parent'  => 0,
-		) );
+		if ( $page ) {
+			$comment_args['offset'] = ( $page - 1 ) * $per_page;
+		} elseif ( 'oldest' === get_option( 'default_comments_page' ) ) {
+			$comment_args['offset'] = 0;
+		} else {
+			// If fetching the first page of 'newest', we need a top-level comment count.
+			$top_level_query = new WP_Comment_Query();
+			$top_level_count = $top_level_query->query( array(
+				'count'   => true,
+				'orderby' => false,
+				'post_id' => $post->ID,
+				'parent'  => 0,
+			) );
 
-		$comment_args['offset'] = ( ceil( $top_level_count / $per_page ) - 1 ) * $per_page;
+			$comment_args['offset'] = ( ceil( $top_level_count / $per_page ) - 1 ) * $per_page;
+		}
 	}
 
 	$comment_query = new WP_Comment_Query( $comment_args );
@@ -1345,7 +1348,7 @@ function comments_template( $file = '/comments.php', $separate_comments = false
 	}
 
 	$overridden_cpage = false;
-	if ( '' == get_query_var('cpage') ) {
+	if ( '' == get_query_var( 'cpage' ) && $wp_query->max_num_comment_pages > 1 ) {
 		set_query_var( 'cpage', 'newest' == get_option('default_comments_page') ? get_comment_pages_count() : 1 );
 		$overridden_cpage = true;
 	}
@@ -1941,8 +1944,9 @@ function wp_list_comments( $args = array(), $comments = null ) {
 		}
 	}
 
-	if ( '' === $r['per_page'] )
+	if ( '' === $r['per_page'] && get_option( 'page_comments' ) ) {
 		$r['per_page'] = get_query_var('comments_per_page');
+	}
 
 	if ( empty($r['per_page']) ) {
 		$r['per_page'] = 0;
diff --git a/wp-includes/default-filters.php b/wp-includes/default-filters.php
index f3f711464e..bbe9f24a23 100644
--- a/wp-includes/default-filters.php
+++ b/wp-includes/default-filters.php
@@ -329,9 +329,6 @@ add_filter( 'default_option_link_manager_enabled', '__return_true' );
 // This option no longer exists; tell plugins we always support auto-embedding.
 add_filter( 'default_option_embed_autourls', '__return_true' );
 
-// This option no longer exists; tell plugins we want comment pagination.
-add_filter( 'pre_option_page_comments', '__return_true' );
-
 // Default settings for heartbeat
 add_filter( 'heartbeat_settings', 'wp_heartbeat_settings' );
 
diff --git a/wp-includes/version.php b/wp-includes/version.php
index 3c3834689f..0800c95351 100644
--- a/wp-includes/version.php
+++ b/wp-includes/version.php
@@ -4,14 +4,14 @@
  *
  * @global string $wp_version
  */
-$wp_version = '4.4-alpha-35330';
+$wp_version = '4.4-alpha-35331';
 
 /**
  * Holds the WordPress DB revision, increments when changes are made to the WordPress DB schema.
  *
  * @global int $wp_db_version
  */
-$wp_db_version = 34978;
+$wp_db_version = 35329;
 
 /**
  * Holds the TinyMCE version