Our current system of using the this scope for handling template partials seems to be bust with underscore 1.2.2+ changes where this in the context of a template is no longer the templates object. We need a new approach or a way to repair the scope of our template functions back to the templates object.
If we do make a breaking change for this it should belong in 2.x with 1.x staying on underscore 1.x.
/cc @kkaefer @tmcw @willwhite