I don't quite understand the scene involving Loki fake cutting off Thor's hand. I get that it was an illusion of sorts created by Loki, but at the start of the scene, Loki and Thor are at the top of a hill, with the villain seeing them from a great distance.

I can't remember the exact line, but I think Thor says something like I hope I can trust you before taking off Loki's handcuffs. Loki then says that Thor made a mistake in trusting him, and then "stabs" and shoves him down the mountain and begins "cutting" off his hand, Later, Loki shows it's an illusion, Thor has his hand, and the fight with the villainensues.

I guess my question is...it never seemed to me that Thor was ever in on that plot twist, but by the end, Thor signals Loki to give back his hand so he can grab his hammer. Am I wrong? In other words, that twist seemed more specifically for the audience, as opposed to a genuine attempt to fool the villain, because from what I recall, Loki smugly lamented the fact that Thor would trust him to take off his handcuffs, before shoving him down that mountain.

But why would he say that if the villain wasn't in earshot to hear it?

Thor and Loki (and by extension as a means to fool the audience) but the "pageantry" of the stab, shove, and hand chop was for the benefit of Malekith and his entourage. I thought the scene was pretty easy to follow and the deception quite transparent.

Homeland

Jane ending up with the Aether infecting her. So we're meant to believe that Jane's investigations stumble on portals to other dimensions and out of all the theoretically gazillions of possibilities Thor's girlfriend ends up in the spot where the Aether was put and frees the Dark Elves? That just reeaaaallllly strained my coincidence meter to the limit for some reason.