index.html

<!-- from page being fetched -->
<div class="page-content">
  <h1>here is some content on the case-study page</h1>
</div>

output-1.txt

<!-- response from static HTML prototype -->
<!-- success - console log returns relevant object -->

[div.page-content, prevObject: x.fn.x.init[35], context: undefined, selector: ".page-content", jquery: "1.10.2", constructor: function…]

output-2.txt

<!-- response from CMS implementation -->
<!-- failure - console log returns object but undefined if try to access -->

[prevObject: x.fn.x.init[62], context: undefined, selector: ".page-content", jquery: "1.10.2", constructor: function…]

script.js

// url = path to page being fetched
function doAdjacent(url,dir) {          
  $.get( url, function( data ) {
    console.log($(data).find('.page-content'));   
  });
}

try checking that data is the same in both contexts, if you change console.log($(data).find('.page-content')); to console.log(data) what results do you get?