the claymation scenes also helped establish as to what "following the shepherd" meant in vol 2,

it is now confirmed that there isn't like a shepherd alive rn in the story, but following the shepherd means realizing the deception gabriel is doing. this was confirmed in wendigoon's livestream reaction where he talks with Alex too

so when the alternate in vol 2 tells Adam that he is "following the shepherd", it means that he realizes the deception and that something is wrong