Silent Man isn't the most commendable one

What about the airline pilot who sacrificed himself to spare Sean, the 16-year-old?

Or Oscar's mother, who sacrificed herself after those two, but only after what was clearly some anguished mental hand-wringing.

Ultimately, it's a messed-up situation to paraphrase (the Asian guy?), so not much point in assigning commend-ability. I did like the silent's man's resolve and adherence to his principles.

But you can (and you did) also legitimately characterize his resolve as cold-hearted inflexibility, especially since Eric was able to exploit silent man's refusal to vote to eliminate fake-wife.

Upon further reflection, I like the silent man's resolve.

Yes, his non-vote counted and yes, Eric exploited him, but what matters is his determination, like Eric speculates, not to "give them anything."

It's Sophie's Choice (i.e., which of your children do you choose to live) - refusing the choose, even if it means a worse outcome, has a certain dignity to it. He consciously chose not to participate.

But I definitely agree about the illegal alien - he had to figure out what was going on without the benefit of speaking English and still made the "right" choice