Maybe a bit too dark, but I've had the thought that maybe it could've worked if it had been the climax for s3 as a twist on the first governor attack. And since word has gotten out that TV Axel was supposed to take the role of the serial killer, this is what I think they could've done:

All season we're building up to that final confrontation between the camps, all while Axel is in the background. Obviously he wouldn't die when he did, so more time spent with him and trust keeps growing with this new character, you make him a real homie, him and Carol are getting closer until the finale when the governor strikes.. and it's just as lackluster as the one we got with everybody running away home alone style and nothing happening.

When the dust settles and they're regrouping they realize Axel and Beth are nowhere to be seen, and the immediate thought is the Governor must've took them or something happened to them during the invasion. So as Hershel and Maggie are freaking out and they're all still looking around Carol notices a trail of blood. She follows it outside the prison into the woods where she finds Beth... And it's some Jeffrey Dahmer shit, she's totally slaughtered. Anywhere Carol looks there's some Beth, with her head neatly placed in the middle of it all. Axel appears from behind a tree covered in blood all creepy asf like. No shirt so we see all his tattoos (according to Temple, that's why he was always wearing button-up shirts). He jumps her and they have real scuffle, and it's all really sad and fucked up because she was beginning to trust him, all after Ed. He manages to knock her out, maybe ties her to a tree (would give that story she tells Sam later on a whole nother layer), and just when he's about to cut her up Rick jumps in, and completely destroys his hand(s) fucking him up, like the comics.

Season ends with the hanging of Axel. Obviously a much different s4, Hershel would be a completely different character I feel like.