diff --git a/macos/Sources/Features/Terminal/BaseTerminalController.swift b/macos/Sources/Features/Terminal/BaseTerminalController.swift
index 9862e1288..fd5ca9ffb 100644
--- a/macos/Sources/Features/Terminal/BaseTerminalController.swift
+++ b/macos/Sources/Features/Terminal/BaseTerminalController.swift
@@ -149,10 +149,8 @@ class BaseTerminalController: NSWindowController,
     ///
     /// Subclasses should call super first.
     func surfaceTreeDidChange(from: Ghostty.SplitNode?, to: Ghostty.SplitNode?) {
-        // If our surface tree becomes nil then ensure all surfaces
-        // in the old tree have closed.
+        // If our surface tree becomes nil then we have no focused surface.
         if (to == nil) {
-            from?.close()
             focusedSurface = nil
         }
     }
diff --git a/macos/Sources/Ghostty/Ghostty.SplitNode.swift b/macos/Sources/Ghostty/Ghostty.SplitNode.swift
index 95c019b1f..97b20acd3 100644
--- a/macos/Sources/Ghostty/Ghostty.SplitNode.swift
+++ b/macos/Sources/Ghostty/Ghostty.SplitNode.swift
@@ -102,19 +102,6 @@ extension Ghostty {
             }
         }
 
-        /// Close the surface associated with this node. This will likely deinitialize the
-        /// surface. At this point, the surface view in this node tree can never be used again.
-        func close() {
-            switch (self) {
-            case .leaf(let leaf):
-                leaf.surface.close()
-
-            case .split(let container):
-                container.topLeft.close()
-                container.bottomRight.close()
-            }
-        }
-
         /// Returns true if any surface in the split stack requires quit confirmation.
         func needsConfirmQuit() -> Bool {
             switch (self) {
@@ -224,7 +211,7 @@ extension Ghostty {
                 self.app = app
                 self.surface = SurfaceView(app, baseConfig: baseConfig, uuid: uuid)
             }
-
+            
             // MARK: - Hashable
 
             func hash(into hasher: inout Hasher) {
diff --git a/macos/Sources/Ghostty/Ghostty.TerminalSplit.swift b/macos/Sources/Ghostty/Ghostty.TerminalSplit.swift
index 3e942d774..92528ace7 100644
--- a/macos/Sources/Ghostty/Ghostty.TerminalSplit.swift
+++ b/macos/Sources/Ghostty/Ghostty.TerminalSplit.swift
@@ -75,7 +75,6 @@ extension Ghostty {
                         .onReceive(pubZoom) { onZoom(notification: $0) }
                     }
                 }
-                .id(node) // Needed for change detection on node
             } else {
                 // On these events we want to reset the split state and call it.
                 let pubSplit = center.publisher(for: Notification.ghosttyNewSplit, object: zoomedSurface!)
@@ -289,7 +288,7 @@ extension Ghostty {
 
         let neighbors: SplitNode.Neighbors
         @Binding var node: SplitNode?
-        @StateObject var container: SplitNode.Container
+        @ObservedObject var container: SplitNode.Container
 
         var body: some View {
             SplitView(
@@ -331,7 +330,6 @@ extension Ghostty {
                 }
 
                 // Closing
-                container.topLeft.close()
                 node = container.bottomRight
 
                 switch (node) {
@@ -362,7 +360,6 @@ extension Ghostty {
                 }
 
                 // Closing
-                container.bottomRight.close()
                 node = container.topLeft
 
                 switch (node) {
diff --git a/macos/Sources/Ghostty/SurfaceView_AppKit.swift b/macos/Sources/Ghostty/SurfaceView_AppKit.swift
index 8e8838471..99f901792 100644
--- a/macos/Sources/Ghostty/SurfaceView_AppKit.swift
+++ b/macos/Sources/Ghostty/SurfaceView_AppKit.swift
@@ -279,22 +279,14 @@ extension Ghostty {
             // Remove ourselves from secure input if we have to
             SecureInput.shared.removeScoped(ObjectIdentifier(self))
 
-            guard let surface = self.surface else { return }
-            ghostty_surface_free(surface)
-        }
-
-        /// Close the surface early. This will free the associated Ghostty surface and the view will
-        /// no longer render. The view can never be used again. This is a way for us to free the
-        /// Ghostty resources while references may still be held to this view. I've found that SwiftUI
-        /// tends to hold this view longer than it should so we free the expensive stuff explicitly.
-        func close() {
             // Remove any notifications associated with this surface
             let identifiers = Array(self.notificationIdentifiers)
             UNUserNotificationCenter.current().removeDeliveredNotifications(withIdentifiers: identifiers)
 
-            guard let surface = self.surface else { return }
-            ghostty_surface_free(surface)
-            self.surface = nil
+            // Free our core surface resources
+            if let surface = self.surface {
+                ghostty_surface_free(surface)
+            }
         }
 
         func focusDidChange(_ focused: Bool) {