Continuity mistake: When the Asgardian bends the knife, he bends the tip up at the very end. When he takes his hand off the knife, the entire front half of the knife is straight. The shot changes again and the knife is bent differently again. (00:24:15)
Continuity mistake: When Simmons is scanning the tree, first she holds the scanner vertically, then the shot changes and instantly she is holding it horizontally. (00:07:50)
Chosen answer: Coulson believes he was resuscitated then sent to Tahiti to recuperate. "A magical place," he calls it. But in the "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." episode "The Magical Place", Coulson, through a mind-reading machine, learns that he was treated by S.H.I.E.L.D. and a fake memory of Tahiti was placed as a "mask" of sorts over the painful memory of the operation, which involved a drug seemingly of alien origin to repair the damage, coupled with a lot of morally dubious surgery.