Ah, I figured it out. If anyone is interested, you just have to yank on the little black loop-- but you have to put a lot of force into it...as if you were trying to break it. An odd little dealio it is, but get angry enough and you'll turn into the Hulk and succeed.

 

Congrats, Einstein. Don't feel bad; when I bought my hatch on 05, the salesman didn't know how to flip up the seats!

 

I put my back seats up and down all the time; as a professional drummer I'm constantly loading and unloading my gear.

Yeah, you gotta yank up on those things like you're **** at it. What I do is, when putting the seats back up and putting the bottom seat cushions back in place, I don't push them back down into place where you feel a "click" (for lack of a better descriptor). I just put them back gently so that next time you don't have to yank hard on those little black hoops. Of course, if someone sits back there their weight will force it back down, but if not, you save yourself a little aggravation.