So Sueños de Libertad is a perfect show to theorize over because, with the amount of episodes, everything can change pretty quickly. When one episode you think it's going a certain way, then the next, they surprise you and suddenly it's seemingly going the complete other way.
This is why I leave most of my theorizing to a groupchat and a few friends, because it changes to fast that a throwaway theory can become real or debunked in one scene. But I felt like sharing this one, because of a few factors. (It's not very eloquent)
We know Pelayo is still around for filming current day (so T3) at least in some capacity.
We know that their smaller villains (like Pelayo, Maria, some others) are overall written in a way where, in some people's eyes, they could still be redeemed. Compared to someone like Jesús, Gabriel, which are the main villains and have done such massive wrongs to so many different people, it's impossible. (Or it should be impossible).
What if this plot with Pelayo needing to be sent away actually happens, (which I doubt, but even the threat of it might be enough) and he realizes just how horrible it is to leave everyone you care for behind (i know, what a stretch because he usually only looks out for himself), and thus this is the way he realises he fucked up with Fina. Aka: redeem Pelayo plot activated.
He recognizes it, and in some way he either confesses to Marta what he did with Fina - I doubt it - or he reaches out to Fina first and tries to make it up that way - but it would be wonderful for him to realise she's out of his reach by now, but not for us - and that is how he's somehow turned into basically what Maria is now: not the main villain in the story anymore, lying in wait possibly, redeemed in some character's (and probably viewer's) eyes but not others.
Maybe he does some 'grand gesture' and gets rid of the remaining elements he has hanging over them, in a show of good faith.
Whatever it is, even if he's not actually sent away, I feel like for Pelayo's characters to still be around in a year or longer, he'd need to gain some insight and self-reflection.
Let's also not forget that an irrelevant character in a telenovela is usually a dead one. And because Pelayo is not the main Big Bad, and we know he's still around, it's perfectly possible he'll just be in the background for a while. But without this character development, stretching the 'Fina is away' plot a lot longer is going to be very difficult to believe as a viewer.
The current plot is moving that story along too, for sure. And they could do it entirely differently and let Pelayo be an asshole and not "redeemed". But I keep thinking then: how is he going to stay in a marriage with Marta, how is he going to still be around in a few months time, if they don't use this plot to change his insights?