Did Agents of SHIELD Just Reference Avengers: Infinity War?

Minor spoilers ahead for tonight's episode of Agents of SHIELD! "Window of Opportunity" largely focused on Sarge (Clark Gregg) and his team, showing fans just a little bit more of the apparent time-jumping space pirates. Along with some development on Gregg's new role, there were two instances throughout the episode that seemed to at least serve as a nod to Avengers: Infinity War.

Agent Melinda May (Ming-Na Wen) finally tracked down Sarge and was able to confront him, eventually losing in a fight to Sarge's henchmen Jaco (Winston James Francis) and Snowflake (Brooke Williams). Rejoining the SHIELD team, May utters a defeated "I lost...," something that not only was awfully close to Captain America's infamous line in Infinity War, but the delivery was nearly identical to how Chris Evans said his version of the line.

Elsewhere, Dr. Marcus Benson (Barry Shabaka Henley) has unearthed some more information about the new group of invaders and he pulls up a video taken of Sarge and Jaco. As Benson and Director MacKenzie (Henry Simmons) look on, we can see a planet start "dusting" away in the background behind the characters in the video. Though it was very reminiscent of the way characters dusted away in Infinity War, it should be noted that this effect looked slightly different — and the planet itself was dusting away, not just its biological life.

The powers that be behind the show have been more than transparent about the show's connection to the movies as of late. Marvel Television boss Jeph Loeb admitted earlier this month that remaining separate from the films is the "safest way" from this corner of the Marvel Cinematic Universe to move forward.

"It's just the safest way for us to do things," Loeb previously said. "Just looking at it from a very practical place, which is, what the world looked like post-snap, [it] was not something we had seen yet. We were already shooting."

Do you think the Agents of SHIELD moments were nods to Avengers: Infinity War? If not, do you think the show will end up connecting with the films at any point this season? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below or by hitting me (@AdamBarnhardt) up on Twitter to talk all things SHIELD!

Agents of SHIELD airs Friday nights on ABC starting at 8/7 p.m. Central while Avengers: Infinity War is now streaming on Netflix.