Solitaire Without the Solitude: Solitaire Clash Video Series Episode 1 — Solitaire Origins

Every series has to start somewhere.

This episode starts in a French prison.

Episode 1 of Solitaire Without the Solitude, a three-part mockumentary-style video series created for Solitaire Clash, opens with a theory delivered with unwavering confidence: Solitaire may have originated in an 18th-century French prison… Did it?

The theory comes from Caviar director Amir Farhang, an award-winning filmmaker known for his cinematic, story-driven work. It's presented by Leo González with complete seriousness, even though Solitaire Clash is a modern mobile card game that reimagines classic Solitaire as a fast-paced, competitive experience played against other people. It is not a quiet, candlelit historical reenactment of its possible origins.

Confident delivery, questionable history. Watch Episode 1 to see how Solitaire origins unfold.

Behind the scenes, the direction stays intentionally restrained. Nothing is rushed or overplayed, and nothing pulls focus from the story itself. The pacing remains steady, the tone calm, and the explanation is given plenty of room to move forward confidently. Even when the details start to feel a little questionable.

That calm setup makes space for Leo González, who presents the series with exaggerated seriousness. Small ideas are treated like major discoveries, and questionable details are delivered with complete confidence. He never stops to clarify what's serious and what isn't, and that commitment is what drives the humor across all three episodes.

The introduction to Solitaire Without the Solitude explains how this happened, taking a mockingly serious tone to do so.

This episode opens like a real history documentary. Calm. Certain. Fully expecting to be believed. A French prison in the 1700s, and a story about the Solitaire origins that moves forward without hesitation.

At the center is a prisoner named Jacques DuPont. He is alone. Entirely. Which makes the choice of game obvious. He plays Solitaire. One game. The kind that is designed for one person and a lot of uninterrupted time.

He doesn't switch games. He doesn't quit. He keeps dealing, reshuffling, starting over. The same solitaire strategy, applied endlessly. Days turn into months. Months become years. The cards keep coming. This is not boredom. This is commitment. When someone has nothing left, they still want one thing to go their way.

The execution date approaches. The game does not change its priorities. 17 years later, Jacques wins.

That matters.

Not because it saves him.

Not because it changes his fate.

But because even here, even facing death, winning something still counts.

He is given a parade. Through the prison. Head-first. No explanation is offered. None is needed. Solitaire has always treated winning as personal. Private. Earned.

For centuries, people played this way. Alone. One player, one deck, no one else involved.

Now, Solitaire isn't played alone anymore. There's an opponent. Which changes things.

Now that is Solitaire Clash.

This Solitaire Clash mockumentary series doesn't stay in the French prison for long. Once the idea of the history of Solitaire is established, the series moves forward in time, following the Solitaire game as it leaves confinement and finds new places to exist quietly. The tone stays the same. The settings change.

Episode 2: 90s Office Culture - Solitaire finds a new home in a place built on schedules, screens, and pretending to stay busy.

Episode 3: Holiday Family Humor - The final episode lands where conversations stall, plates are cleared, and Solitaire quietly takes over.

Solitaire doesn't change much; it simply continues to find new places to exist.

Solitaire has always followed people into quiet places. The series just points that out and moves on. Solitaire Clash picks up from there, taking a game that spent a long time being played alone and giving it somewhere else to go.

Watch the Solitaire Without the Solitude series, then download Solitaire Clash to play anytime, anywhere.