Mongoose Nested Populate using Q not working

I'm learning promises, and I'm trying to clean up my nested populates using Q.

Problem: The layers don't run in order, and the resulting data isn't being passed through to each successive layer.

Q().then(layerOne(aggr_data))
  .then(layerTwo)
  .then(layerThree)

function layerOne(aggr_data) {
  var options = {
      path: '_video'
    , model: 'video'
  };
  return model_video.populate( aggr_data, options, function (err, snippet) {
    if (err) return next(err);
    return snippet;
  });
};

function layerTwo(snippet) {
  var commentOptions = {
      path: '_comments._author'
    , model: 'user'
  };
  return model_user.populate(snippet, commentOptions, function (err, popSnippet) {
    if (err) return next(err);
    return popSnippet;
  });
};

function layerThree(popSnippet) {
  var videoOptions = {
      path: '_video._chirps._comments'
    , model: 'comment'
  };
  return model_comment.populate(snippet, videoOptions, function (err, deepSnippet) {
    if (err) return next(err);
    next(deepSnippet);
  });
};