Header div invisible after manual call to (jQueryMobile) $.mobile.changePage - jquery-mobile

Question

I'm using jQuery Mobile to write a PhoneGap application, and attempting to get an effect often found in iPhone applications: upon first load of the application (because you haven't configured it yet), the application flips over and you see the settings page.
I have all of the functional bits working as expected, but there's just one problem: the header div of my settings page is not displayed.
<div data-role="page" id="settings" data-theme="c">
<div data-role="header" data-theme="a">
<h1>Settings</h1>
<a href="#home"
data-icon="check"
class="ui-btn-right"
data-transition="flip"
data-theme="a"
>Done</a>
</div>
<div data-role="content">
<!-- ... -->
This is the code that's flipping over to the settings page:
$.mobile.changePage($("#settings"), { transition: 'flip' });
If, after the app loads and automatically flips to the settings page (with header invisible), I refresh the page, the header appears. It only goes stealth in this case when I'm manually flipping to the settings page. For example, from the home screen, if I hit the settings button, it flips to the settings page and the header is not stealthed.
I've also tried poking around the css properties of the header div and its children to see if there's any difference between the two use cases, but I can't find any.
So, what now?
Update: As requested, here's the code that's detecting it's the first time the app is running and switching to the settings page:
onDeviceReady: function () {
analytics.trackStart();
//if no show has been selected, switch to settings page
if (this.getProperty('activeShowId') === null) {
var idFromCache = cache.getItem(this.getProperty('localStoragePrefix') + 'activeShowId');
if (idFromCache === null) {
//no show selected, show settings page
$.mobile.changePage($("#settings"), { transition: 'flip' });
return;
} else {
//select the corresponding show on the settings page
var radio = $("#settings input:radio[value=" + idFromCache + "]"),
label = radio.next();
radio.prop('checked', true);
label.attr('data-theme','e').addClass('ui-btn-up-e')
.removeClass('ui-radio-off').addClass('ui-radio-on')
.find(".ui-icon").removeClass('ui-icon-radio-off').addClass('ui-icon-shadow').addClass('ui-icon-radio-on');
var titleFromCache = cache.getItem(this.getProperty('localStoragePrefix') + 'activeShowTitle');
//TODO:
if (titleFromCache === null) {
pgalert('TODO: load show info when title isn\'t cached in localStorage');
}
this.setActiveShow(idFromCache, titleFromCache);
}
}
if (this.getProperty('userEmail') === null) {
var emailFromCache = cache.getItem(this.getProperty('localStoragePrefix') + 'userEmail');
if (emailFromCache === null) {
$.mobile.changePage($("#settings"), { transition: 'flip' });
return;
} else {
//fill in the email text field so it's already there if they go to the settings page
$("#settings #userEmail").val( emailFromCache );
}
}
if ( window && window.plugins && window.plugins.pushNotification && window.plugins.pushNotification.registerCallback ) {
window.plugins.pushNotification.registerCallback(
function () {
console.log('pn cb registered');
}
, this.error
);
}
}