MySQL performance with nested sub query - mysql

Question

I have two tables messages and members. I tried joining tables without having a nested query but it does not reflect the join on members. So, I initially thought that I could do the following
SELECT M1.*, COUNT(M2.emid) AS replies FROM messages M1
LEFT JOIN messages M2
ON M2.thread = M1.emid
INNER JOIN members M
ON M.meid = M1.emitter
WHERE
M1.thread is NULL AND
M1.receiver = 2
GROUP BY
M1.emid
but it does not seem to join the corresponding member. Then I tried this and it gives me the result that I need but I would like to know if there is a way to accomplish the same result using joins without the nested query
SELECT * FROM (
SELECT M1.*, COUNT(M2.emid) AS replies FROM messages M1
LEFT JOIN messages M2
ON M2.thread = M1.emid
WHERE
M1.thread is NULL AND
M1.receiver = 2
GROUP BY
M1.emid
) O INNER JOIN members M ON O.receiver = M.meid
-- Table structure for table members
CREATE TABLE `members` (
`meid` bigint(64) NOT NULL,
`name` varchar(32) DEFAULT NULL,
`lastname` varchar(32) DEFAULT NULL,
`email` varchar(128) NOT NULL,
`mobile` char(10) DEFAULT NULL,
`college` bigint(64) NOT NULL,
`major` bigint(64) NOT NULL,
`password` varchar(256) NOT NULL,
`oauth` varchar(128) DEFAULT NULL,
`confirmed` tinyint(4) DEFAULT NULL,
`active` timestamp NOT NULL DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP ON UPDATE CURRENT_TIMESTAMP,
`joined` timestamp NOT NULL DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP
) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=latin1;
-- Table structure for table messages
CREATE TABLE `messages` (
`emid` bigint(20) NOT NULL,
`emitter` bigint(20) NOT NULL,
`receiver` bigint(20) NOT NULL,
`thread` bigint(20) DEFAULT NULL,
`opened` tinyint(4) DEFAULT '0',
`message` blob NOT NULL,
`timecard` datetime DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP
) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=latin1;