A remark from Barry (Grant Gustin) in The Flash’s latest episode confirms that season 7 is continuing an absurd villain tradition that’s been going on since the beginning of the series. Barry may be the Flash, but he has often been faced with villains capable of not only matching but even exceeding his speed, despite countless voiceovers declaring himself the fastest man alive.

Barry found his speed lacking against the show’s first three main villains. Reverse-Flash (Tom Cavanagh), Zoom (Teddy Sears), and Savitar were all faster than Barry, which is the primary reason why he had such a difficult time beating them. Barry’s speed has increased by a wide margin since those days, but the difficulties he has in taking down his opponents have persisted. Even the villains who aren’t necessarily speedsters have abilities that can work faster than Barry’s. This enables them to defeat him in combat.

Related: Arrowverse Finally Fixes Team Flash's Biggest Problem

This is a long-standing problem that hasn’t gone away. In The Flash season 7, episode 2, titled “Speed of Thought,” Barry told Cisco (Carlos Valdez) that Mirror Mistress aka Eva McCulloch (Efrat Dor) is faster than he is. Apparently, the ability to react at an amazingly fast speed is one of her many mirror powers. While it was known that her speed was superior to his in season 6, Barry’s admission is still surprising. It was believed at the time that Eva was only able to beat Barry so effortlessly because the Speed Force was dead. Most of his speed had already evaporated at that point, so him being slower than her in season 6 seemed excusable to a certain degree.

The Flash Efrat Dor Mirror Master Eva McCulloch

Even though Barry now has his full power back thanks to the Artificial Speed Force, his situation apparently hasn’t changed. Given Barry’s new speed-thinking ability, it’s likely that he isn’t wrong about his assessment of her capabilities. That means Mirror Mistress really is faster than the Flash at his normal state, and that’s a bit disappointing. It’s hard to imagine a non-speedster having this advantage over a character who is commonly thought of as the fastest hero in the Arrowverse, yet somehow, The Flash has confirmed this to be the case. Eva has just become the latest example of the Arrowverse making Barry slower than his opponents.

Barry’s reputation as the Fastest Man Alive is what makes that approach so problematic. It would seem that The Flash needs its villains to be faster than him in order to keep him from winning during their first fight. Regardless, Eva keeping her advantage over Barry despite the emergence of the Artificial Speed Force means that as per usual, strategy and teamwork will need to employed when they have their upcoming showdown. One thing that Barry will have going for him, though, is that while he isn’t faster than her, he has at least narrowed the gap. Powered by the new Speed Force, Barry was able to steal her dark matter particles without her noticing, so his increase in speed could still end up being a difference-maker when it comes time for their final fight in The Flash season 7.

More: The Flash: How The Mirrorverse Changed Iris (Did It Give Her Powers?)