jQuery filtering selector to remove nested elements matching pattern

Question

Given this sample markup (assuming a random number of elements between .outer and .inner:

Answer 1

If assume correctly you want to select all .inner that is beneath an .outer, except if there is an .outer inbetween, perhaps following will work (untested):

$('.outer:not(.inner):has(:not(.outer) .inner:not(.outer), > .inner:not(.outer))');

updated after test on OP example HTML at http://jsfiddle.net/cEwBT/1/